Genetically Engineered Plants and Seeds Reporting
In 2009, the Maine Legislature amended Title 7, Chapter 103, Subchapter 11-A entitled Genetically Engineered Plants and Seeds to add a requirement for manufacturers to submit an annual report to this Department of the potential acreage of their GE crops that could be planted based on their sales. This legislation also stated that individual manufacturer’s data received is confidential and may not be made public. It further stated that the Commissioner shall make public aggregate data that does not reveal the sales activities of an individual manufacturer.
Reports for the 2012 crop year were received from the following five manufacturers:
Monsanto Company
Mycogen Seeds (Div. of Dow AgroSciences)
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
Seedway Vegetable Seed
Syngenta Seeds, Inc.
Potential acreage was reported for the following genetically engineered crops:
Alfalfa
Canola
Field Corn
Soybeans
Sweet Corn
Due to the low number of companies reporting sales, it is not possible to list the acreages by crop without possibly revealing the sales activity of an individual manufacturer. Therefore, the Department is reporting an aggregate total of 20,378 acres that potentially could have been planted to genetically engineered crops in 2012. This represents a decrease of 7,669 acres over the 28,047 acres that potentially could have been planted to genetically engineered crops in 2011.
