Biotech Crops Cause Big Jump in Pesticide Use: Report

[depakid]

Source: Reuters



The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton has promoted increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds and more chemical residues in foods, according to a report issued Tuesday by health and environmental protection groups. The groups said research showed that herbicide use grew by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008.

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/science/failure-to-yield.html">The report was released by nonprofits The Organic Center (TOC), the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Center for Food Safety (CFS).

The groups said that while herbicide use has climbed, insecticide use has dropped because of biotech crops. They said adoption of genetically engineered corn and cotton that carry traits resistant to insects has led to a reduction in insecticide use by 64 million pounds since 1996. Still, that leaves a net overall increase on U.S. farm fields of 318 million pounds of pesticides, which includes insecticides and herbicides, over the first 13 years of commercial use.

The rise in herbicide use comes as U.S. farmers increasingly adopt corn, soy and cotton that have been engineered with traits that allow them to tolerate dousings of weed killer. The most popular of these are known as "Roundup Ready" for their ability to sustain treatments with Roundup herbicide and are developed and marketed by world seed industry leader Monsanto Co.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/17-4

[sazemisery]

1. That was Monsanto's plan all along

Make genetically modified seeds that need more of their poison.

[AlbertCat]

2. that need more of their poison.

The seeds don't "need" the herbicides! They just enable farmers to use them without killing the crop too.

I'm not scared of frankinfood but I think it should also be very very carefully monitored. And engineering crops that, say, won't produce seeds you can use, making you have to buy anew each year, is despicable and should be illegal. Still, making it so your product CAN be used more is not the same as making the crops NEED your product.


(Even the headline is wrong. It caused a big jump in HERBICIDE use, not pesticide use..which, though it increased, did so much less than usual....according to what's written above)

[louis-t]

4. "crops that, say, won't produce seeds"

Like invading a country and putting in place a law that says farmers who have been saving seeds for thousands of years-can't?

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Help, please: which link stated that pesticide use increased much less than usual?

The net increase is mentioned in the Common Dreams article but I didn't see a rate of increase mentioned for pesticides as a whole. Did you see it in the Common Dreams article or the report itself?

[SpiralHawk]

15. Frankenfood has been tested ONLY by the corporations selling it

no independent testing.

So trust them if you wish, but I have MANY QUESTIONS.

And I dearly wish the FRANKENFOOD was not occult -- not labeled so you cannot possibly know what you are getting, whether you want mutant food or not.

[BelgianMadCow]

40. the KEY to this debate is exactly that: it's all based on a non-peer-reviewed small scale study

of 90 days on rats, done by Monsanto.

That's it. That's all. Feel safe now? Roundup-ready corn kills monarch butterflies. Oops, but who cares? Roudnupready seeds sold in India at 4 times regular price, promising super yields, resulted in serious injury to those being sprayed over, and did NOT give a higher yield. Farmers that bought into the scheme are ruined, and they are committing suicide at a very high rate. By drinking Roundup.

One other key piece in this debate - the principle of "substantial equivalence" - if a genetically modified crop has about the same nutritional value, and doesn't differ "all that much" from regular varieties, it can be assumed safe, doesn't need to be tested further and doesn't have to be labeled. :wtf:
That is like saying well your DNA and that of your father isn't that different, so when he commited a murder you're a murderer as well. It simply preposterous. To make matters worse, what has been tested in those very limited lab test was the inserted part and NOT the whole new crop. Argument being that the insertion in itself didn't cause any change to the rest of the picture. This has been proven false.

The substantial evidence clause was written into US law by Monsanto (or, Monsanto top people that changed to the FDA, revolving door anyone?). The UK has copied it. The EU picked it up from them. All EU-allowed gm crops' licences are currently "under review" though.

I got curious after reading on a jar of (low-cost) honey "made from EU and non-EU honey". What do you think is the difference between the two? Right honey from gm plants or not.

Subsequently I read "Le monde selon Monsanto" - the world according to - by Marie-Monique Robin. Chilling, eye-opening book on the corporation that started in PCBs, via Agent Orange through Roundup to sterilized seeds and roundupready crops.
On edit: I see there exists an english version - http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-According-Monsanto-Pollution-Corruption/dp/1595584269/ref=sr_1_1/275-5802479-4560110?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258573467&sr=1-1 - it's in pre-order phase it seems.

[SpiralHawk]

42. Thank you Belgian Mad Cow

very informative

[twitomy]

34. LOL! your about 80 years too late:

"And engineering crops that, say, won't produce seeds you can use, making you have to buy anew each year, is despicable and should be illegal."

This has been going on since the 1930's with the introduction of "hybrids". Hybrids were pioneered by
Gregor Mendel in the 1860's. You cant use hybrid grain as seed for the next year as your yield will be vastly reduced. Thats why farmers have been "forced" to buy seed every year since then. The GMO "suicide" seed is basically a seed that if planted in the second year will produce zippo yield instead if just a little. But its a moot point as little yield is as bad as no yield as far as farming goes.

[KamaAina]

29. That's pretty much how Roundup Ready works

you don't actaully have to do anything to control weeds, just hose the whole field down with Roundup (from Monsanto, of course) and it'll kill everything except the GM crop.

Unless, of course, the weeds somehow evolved resistance to the poison...

[Zoeisright]

3. Yep, we're shitting where we live.

The planet will survive. We won't.

[EFerrari]

5. Nobody could have ever imagined GMOs would result in more pesticide use.

[zeemike]

6. Why won't the insects eat it...Do they know something we don't?

Sorry but I can't trust food that is not edible.

[WriteDown]

7. Let's ask the question we ALWAYS ask. WHO ARE THESE GROUPS?

The Organic Center (TOC), the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Center for Food Safety (CFS).

[depakid]

9. errr- sciency type groups? You know, those old fashioned types who still use fact based analysis

to formulate findings and policy prescriptions.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.

What began as a collaboration between students and faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 is now an alliance of more than 250,000 citizens and scientists. UCS members are people from all walks of life: parents and businesspeople, biologists and physicists, teachers and students. Our achievements over the decades show that thoughtful action based on the best available science can help safeguard our future and the future of our planet.

[WriteDown]

11. And who funds them?

Also who are the other two. The Organic Center is funded by corporations that produce "organic" food. Well golly gee, who could have imagined that. :rofl:

[depakid]

13. Seems you've lived in the culture of lies for so long you can't distinguish fact from opinion

nor have any appreciation for the process by which rational people come to verifiable (falsifiable) conclusions.

[WriteDown]

14. So they're funded by some group named "process?"

:eyes:

[depakid]

16. The scientific evidence speaks for itself

If you had the skills and the knowledge, you might be able to rationally take issue with the findings, rather than grasping for conspiracy theory.

[WriteDown]

17. Yep, sounds pretty good....

The groups said that while herbicide use has climbed, insecticide use has dropped because of biotech crops. They said adoption of genetically engineered corn and cotton that carry traits resistant to insects has led to a reduction in insecticide use by 64 million pounds since 1996.

[depakid]

20. Gotta love those superweeds, eh? And how about those impressive yields?

This is the first report to analyze nearly two decades worth of peer-reviewed research on the yield of genetically engineered food/feed crops in the United States and to arrive at new yield values for those crops. The report reveals that only one major GE food/feed crop—Bt corn, a variety engineered with a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces toxins to protect the plant from several insects—has achieved any significant yield increase in the United States.

The 3–4 percent yield increase achieved by Bt corn over the 13 years that it has been grown commercially is much less than what has been achieved over that time by other methods, including conventional breeding. Over the past several decades, corn yields have increased about one percent per year, or about 14 percent (due to the compounding property of yield gain) over the 13 years since Bt was first commercialized. Therefore, by this rough calculation, Bt has contributed only 21–28 percent of yield gain in corn, with other approaches contributing 72–79 percent.

The report contrasts this small yield increase achieved by engineered Bt corn with the yield of a suite of alternatives including organic, low-external-input methods, conventional breeding, and modern breeding methods that use technological advances to speed up the selection process for desired traits without actually inserting new genes. Collectively, such methods are capable of increasing crop yields far more than GE has yet managed to do (see Failure to Yield, Chapter 4). However, the public funding deck has been stacked against these other methods to date, as resources have been channeled toward GE research and development.

More: http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/science/failure-to-yield-FAQs.html

[WriteDown]

21. I'm with you...

we should also eliminate all gene therapy in humans. Just think what will happen if they breed. Or their GM DNA could be spread via bacteria or virii!

[depakid]

24. Actually you're just enjoying being asinine

and demonstrating the sort of reductio ad absurdum that we so often see with Republicans.

[WriteDown]

26. So GM humans good, but you can't explain why....

Got it.

[depakid]

37. :sigh:

Last I heard, humans didn't reproduce via pollination- and couldn't spread genes and their unpredictable pleiotropic effects across entire families of plants potentially endangering or poisoning the world's food supply.

That in addition to other concerns raised in the report.

[WriteDown]

38. Hmm...

Apparently, you've never heard of conjugation, transduction, and transformation. Also, you may want to read the novel "I Am Legend."

[SpiralHawk]

18. While the Mutant side is funded by "death-dealing chemicals"

There's food for thought in this rhetoric.

[WriteDown]

19. Like sucrose, sodium chloride, and of course the evil....

ethanol.

[Tumbulu]

25. I am a contributor and member of the Union of Concerned Scientists

This is a member supported organization. Mainly scientists join. They have a great website, check it out.

Organic farmers in general are not big corporations, although plenty of big guys have bought into organics. Your criticism is odd.

[WriteDown]

27. I was referring more to "The Organic Center"

which gives its "Cornerstone Contributor" list. I think GM crops have some amazing uses, but must be handled with care. The outright alarmism is what gets me.

[truedelphi]

22. I'm with you Depakid, but there are those out there

That will only believe Corporate Based science. And Corporate Based science will never support anything less than total affection and total faith in the reports that say that GMO is good for you.

[WriteDown]

23. What about GM humans?

Are they good for the population? Just curious?

[truedelphi]

28. How did you find out about me? n/t

[WriteDown]

30. Haha....

That was good :). I have a friend/ex-girlfriend who had an immune disorder(she was actually in time magazine) that was treated with gene therapy. It didn't cure her, but it did help her quite a bit. Its weird thinking that she she has been changed on a genetic level though.

[truedelphi]

31. I am totally into science doing things inside our bodies

That offers improvement (As long as it is with our consent, of course.)

Have you asked yourself though - perhaps the two of you have just been transported to a differet time and place inside a new Time Space Continum where your friend's condition has been treated with the drinking water. (I may be reading too much SF recently.)

[WriteDown]

35. I wish that were the case...

She is not doing well these days.

[truedelphi]

44. WriteDown, I am sorry to hear that.

it is so tough to watch our friends with these awful diseases. And to try somehow to help them.

My close buddy TK died in 2007, after getting her cancer to like Stage Ten.

She is missed every single day, though I no longer think it's her when my phone rings.

[WriteDown]

45. Thanks truedelphi!

That means a lot. She's still hanging in there, but she has a fistula in her trachea which has been difficult to repair due to her lack of natural healing ability.

[winyanstaz]

8. We must force congress to pass a law NOW to outlaw this garbage..

from our food supplies....and to PAY to clean it all up.

[Locrian]

12. just watched PBS ...

Just watched PBS yesterday about the great "dust bowl" of the 1930's due in large part to ignorance of soil erosion lack of conservation - ie basically raping the land and not understanding the consequences and how sensitive we are to nature.

We have learned zero.

[BelgianMadCow]

41. Read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond - a tale of societal collapses due to ecological mistakes

we've been at it for over a thousand years..

The history of Eastern Island deforestation for making the enormous statues, the subsequent erosion and finally extinction provides a compelling case. But there are many more. the book also has some examples of cultures that did manage well - and tries to summarize the key learning points. A worthwile read.

[L0oniX]

32. Yea ...what ever happened to that White House organic garden?

Oh ...that's right ...isn't there someone in the administration who used to work for Monsanto? Funny ...I seem to have heard something about that today on Democracy Now. Seems that it pissed off a few companies when Michelle planted that chemical free garden.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Ignis]

36. Thanks for posting this, Depakid.

:patriot:

[Vidar]

39. Using one poison to peddle others.

[reprobate]

43. Threefold increase in kid's food alergies, according to today's newspaper.

Is there a connection? I don't know, but the timing is certainly suggestive.

The one truth in all this is that the sole purpose of a corporation is to produce wealth for it's stockholders. If, while doing so it produces harm to humanity, well there's nothing to prevent that, once you get the lawyers and the paid politicians involved.

Call me socialist or anything else you like, but IMHO unregulated capitalism is inevitably leading to the extinction of humankind, all to obey the great God Profit.

Remember what they taught us as kids? The quest for money is the root of all evil? More so, the quest for money is the root of all destruction.