Herbicide Resistant Weeds Spring Up in Bioengineered Soy Fields - Biotech Soybean crops require more herbicides not less
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Source: ENS.
Herbicide Resistant Weeds Spring Up in
Bioengineered Soy Fields
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, May 4, 2001 (ENS) - Reliance on the Monsanto
herbicide Roundup to kill weeds in fields of genetically engineered
Roundup Ready soybeans has led to increased herbicide use because
the weeds have become herbicide resistant, according to a new
study.
Dr. Charles Benbrook of
the Northwest Science
and Environmental Policy
Center in Sandpoint,
Idaho, says that contrary
to the promises of
Monsanto that growing its
genetically engineered
variety of Roundup Ready
soybeans would put fewer
pesticides into the
environment than
conventional varieties,
farmers are applying more
herbicides to Roundup
Ready soybean plants to combat weeds.
American Soybean Association president Tony Anderson agrees that
the developing resistance of weeds to herbicides such as Roundup is
a problem, but says it could be solved more quickly without critics
like Dr. Benbrook.
Roundup Ready crops allow farmers to spray a single broad spectrum
herbicide active ingredient, glyphosate, over the top of growing
soybeans, killing most weeds but leaving the Roundup Ready
soybeans largely unharmed.
The report, "Troubled Times Amid Commercial Success for Roundup
Ready Soybeans," relies on previously unreleased data from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicating that on average 11.4
percent more herbicides is used on Monsanto's Roundup Ready (RR)
soybean crops, than on conventional soybeans. In some cases, 30
percent more herbicides was used.
"More than a dozen soybean herbicides are applied at an average
rate of less than .1 pound active ingredient per acre. Roundup, on
the other hand, is usually applied on soybeans at about .75 pound
per acre in a single spray and most acres are now treated more than
once," Benbrook writes.
But Bryan Hurley, spokesman for Monsanto, says the information in
Dr. Benbrook's report is not correct. "His report is laden with
inaccuracies and biased interpretations of existing data," says Hurley.
"He ignores the experince of farmers."
American farmers have planted 60 percent of this year's soybean
crop, roughly 40 million acres, with bioengineered Roundup Ready
seeds. They would not be selecting these seeds if it was not to their
advantage, Hurley says.
Anderson, whose American Soybean Association supports agriculture
biotechnology, says Roundup Ready soybeans are good for farmers
who are planting them in ever increasing numbers.
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American Soybean Association (ASA)
president Tony Anderson (Photo courtesy (ASA))
"In 1996, when biotech soybean seedstock first
became available commercially, U.S. farmers
planted only about one million acres of biotech
varieties, which represented less than two
percent of the total soybean acres planted that
year," said Anderson. "In 1997, planted acres of
biotech soybeans increased to nearly 10 million
acres, or about 14 percent of the total soy
acres planted. By 1998, biotech seedstock acres
increased to 25 million acres, representing about 34 percent of the
total soy planting."
"In 1999, approximately 38 million acres or 53 percent of total U.S.
soy acres were planted to biotech seedstock, and last year biotech
soybeans were grown on approximately 40 million acres or 55 percent
of total U.S. soy acres," said Anderson.
"In 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that soybean
farmers will again increase the number of acres they plant of soybean
seeds that have been enhanced through modern crop biotechnology,"
Anderson explained.
But Dr. Benbrook says farmers have eagerly
adopted Roundup Ready (RR) soybean
technology because it is cheaper than
conventional farm methods and simplifies weed
management. "Still, Roundup Ready soybean
systems are costly in more ways than one and
some costs are rising," he writes.
"Intense herbicide price competition, triggered by the commercial
success of RR soybeans, has reduced the average cost per acre
treated with most of today�s popular herbicides by close to 50
percent since the introduction of RR soybeans. In response farmers
are applying more active ingredients at generally higher rates," Dr.
Benbrook writes.
"But heightened reliance on herbicides, especially Roundup, has
accelerated the shift in weed species in ways that is undermining the
efficacy of Roundup and requiring farmers to add new products to
their control programs. These trends increase the risk of resistance
and will ultimately lead to less reliable and more costly systems,"
Benbrook maintains.
On behalf of the soybean farmers, Anderson agrees that the
developing resistance of weeds to herbicide is a problem, but it is a
problem that could be solved more quickly if critics had not derailed
the approval process for new products.
"Critics of biotechnology cite the potential for herbicide resistance to
develop if farmers depend upon only one weed control system,"
Anderson said today. "Farmers would agree that diverse technologies
for weed control are an important part of managing weeds and other
pests. Unfortunately, the hysteria caused by environmental activists
in the European Union has frozen the regulatory approval for new
biotechnology enhanced products that could diversify a farmer�s pest
management options."
"One such product, a soybean
resistant to glufosinate herbicide,
would provide farmers another
choice in seed/herbicide
management systems, but the EU
has not approved this product
despite the petition being
submitted in 1998," he said.
At Greenpeace headquarters in
Amsterdam, genetic engineering
campaigner Geert Ritsema says
Monsanto has based its claims of
herbicide reduction on a
comparison between "traditional
soybean varieties" and RR crops without explaining that these
traditional varieties were a selected number of old generation types,
which require high dose rate herbicides."
"This study confirms that genetic engineering of farm crops means
more chemicals in our environment," says Ritsema.
But Anderson says that Dr. Benbrook is "so intent on finding
something wrong with biotechnology, that he misses the big picture."
"There are always questions about new technology. As farmers
growing food for a hungry world, we care very deeply about the
safety and quality of our product, and we are committed to finding
answers to the questions raised by biotechnology�s critics. But," says
Anderson, "this quest for knowledge should not undermine the
positive environmental gains we have made using modern
biotechnology."
The report, "Troubled Times Amid Commercial Success for Roundup
Ready Soybeans," is available online at:
http://www.biotech-info.net/troubledtimes.html.
Note: you will see the standard reference to "feeding the world" in this article. The best book I have found on feeding the world, the green revolution, indigenous knowledge, biotech "solutions" and more is
Food's Frontier: The Next Green Revolution
by Richard Manning. Check it out.
<-- Return To BioTechEffect
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