Title: GM crops gain qualified approval - US research

[Australian Financial Review - By Andrew Pollack, 15 April, 2010] Genetically modified crops have provided "substantial" environmental and economic benefits to American farmers, but overuse of the technology is threatening to erode the gains, a national science advisory organisation says in a report. The report is described as the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of genetically modified crops on American farmers, who have rapidly adopted them since their introduction in 1996. The study was issued by the National Research Council, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences and provides advice to the nation under a congressional charter.

The report found that the crops allowed farmers to either reduce chemical spraying or to use less harmful chemicals. The crops also had lower production costs, higher output or extra convenience, benefits that generally outweighed the higher costs of the engineered seeds.

"That’s a long and impressive list of benefits these crops can provide, and have provided to adopting farmers," David Ervin, the chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said yesterday.

But Dr Ervin warned that farmers were jeopardising the benefits by planting too many so-called Roundup Ready crops. These crops are genetically engineered to be impervious to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to kill weeds while leaving the crops unscathed.

Overuse of this seductively simple approach to weed control is starting to backfire. Use of Roundup, or its generic equivalent, glyphosate, has skyrocketed to the point that weeds are rapidly becoming resistant to the chemicaL That is rendering the technology less useful, requiring farmers to start using additional herbicides, some more toxic than glyphosate.

"Farmer practices may be reducing the utility of some genetic engineering traits as pest-management tools and increasing the likelihood of a return to more environmentally damaging practices," the report concludes.

More than 80 per cent of the corn, soybean and cotton grown in the United States is genetically engineered. The crops tolerate Roundup or are resistant to insects, or both.

American farmers were the first to widely adopt the technology and still account for about half of all engineered crops grown. The crops are also being widely grown in Latin America and parts of Asia but are still largely shunned in Europe.

Critics say the crops may be risky to health and the environment and have issued studies saying that use of the crops has increased reliance on pesticides and has had only a minimal effect on crop yields.

KEY POINTS This is the first comprehensive assessment of the use of GM crops in the United States. The report identifies a long list of benefits from GM crops, but warns that overuse by farmers could cause serious problems.

From http://media.mediamonitors.com.au, see original source.



Article: WeedsNews383 (permalink)
Categories: :WeedsNews:genetics, :WeedsNews:herbicide resistance, :WeedsNews:herbicides, :WeedsNews:weed control
Date: 16 April 2010; 11:06:11 am Australian Eastern Standard Time

Author Name: David Low
Author ID: adminDavid