Widespread planting of genetically modified Bt corn in the upper Midwest has significantly reduced losses from European corn borer damage. Even growers that don’t plant transgenic corn have benefitted from neighboring use of these products.

Main has been the only state in the U.S. that doesn’t permit the planting of Bt corn, but that might be about to change. The state’s Board of Pesticide Control licensed the genetically engineered corn this past summer and recently held a public hearing on proposed rules regulating its use in the state. Bt corn could be used for the first time in Maine as soon as 2008.

No-tillers growing non-biotech crops in which genetically modified crops are also growing due to wind-blown pollen or volunteer plants from a previous year’s seeds are liable to be sued by Monsanto Company, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety. So are no-tillers who grow biotech crops without signing Monsanto’s technology agreement, the group says.

A change in the pricing structure for Monsanto’s biotechnology seed products will be showing up on seed invoices starting with next spring’s crops. Instead of farmers seeing a line item covering technology fees on an invoice, the company is shifting to a royalty pricing structure that will be paid by seed companies licensed to market these products.