Watch What You Eat: New Report Proves that Genetically Modified Crops Increase Pesticide Use and Resistant Weeds

GREEN IS GOOD
by Margaret Smith

It's safe to say that one of the biggest annoyances for most farmers has to be weeds. Weeding their crops can be like an old school Looney Tunes cartoon. Just picture it: a farmer is working diligently in the field (with cute classical music in the background, of course). Suddenly, he sees a weed in the middle of his crop. He walks up to it, braces himself, grabs the weed and pulls. Nothing moves. He pulls again, only a little harder this time. Nothing moves. Finally, he grabs that weed and pulls it with all his might, getting red in the face. Nothing moves, and he ends up just falling backwards, like a fool, to the sound of drums crashing.

It's funny, right?

It's also turning out to be all too true. A recent report released by The Organic Center, the Union for Concerned Scientists and the Center for Food Safety found that the widespread use of genetically modified (GM) crops has led to a sharp increase in the use of agricultural chemicals in the U.S., created herbicide-resistant "super weeds" and increased the amount of chemical residues in food.

In the past few years, the agricultural world has seen a growing number of GM crops like corn, soybeans and cotton that are engineered to resist weed-killing herbicides. The effect on food and crops has been hotly debated, but no definite answer could be found before because most of the information from government organizations like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is over two decades old, and many chemical fertilizers are newer than that.

The new report, entitled "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Life in the United States: The First Thirteen Years", found that as GM crops have become more popular, the use of herbicides has increased as well, with herbicide use growing by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008. Forty-six percent of that increase occurred during 2007 and 2008.

On the plus side, the report did find that insecticide use has decreased by 64 million pounds since 1996, since most GM crops carry traits that ward off insects. As farmers become increasingly critical of GM crops and reports continue to be released on the potential health defects those crops can have on consumers, this information could not have come at a better time. The increased use of GM crops and the prevalence of "super weeds" have created this culture that, according to science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety Bill Freese, "may be profitable for the biotech/pesticide companies, but it's bad news for farmers, human health and the environment."

One of the biggest issues is cost. The price of GM crop seeds has drastically increased in the past couple of years, and cash production costs have risen as well due to the need to create new applications to fight off herbicide-resistant weeds. The Center for Food Safety reports that:

As an example, corn farmers planting “SmartStax” hybrids in 2010 will spend around $124 per acre for seed, almost three times the cost of conventional corn seed. In addition, new-generation “Roundup Ready” (RR) 2 soybean seed, to be introduced on a widespread basis next year, will cost 42 percent more than the original RR seeds they are displacing.

One of the main culprits in GM crops is agricultural company Monsanto and their "Roundup" herbicide. "Roundup" is just another name for the herbicide glyphosate, the dangers of which are hotly debated in the environmental and health world. A study released by an Argentine scientist earlier this year, found that glyphosate can cause birth defects, and these can occur at much lower doses than those commonly used in crop fields. Glyphosate is still the top selling herbicide in the world, however.

That doesn't mean that Monsanto's reputation isn't tainted. Even Dr. Charles Benbrook, chief scientist of The Organic Center and author of "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Life in the United States: The first Thirteen Years", said that the company is largely to blame.

"The drastic increase in pesticide use with genetically engineered crops is due primarily to the rapid emergence of weeds resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide," Benbrook said in a statement. "With glyphosate-resistant weeds now infesting millions of acres, farmers face rising costs coupled with sometimes major yield losses, and the environmental impact of weed management systems will surely rise."

And the hardest part may be that farmers no longer have the option of going back. When GM crops came out, their impact was huge. As the report notes, one North Carolinian even said that this was "the greatest thing in agriculture in my lifetime." It is only recently that many farmers and scientists have begun to see their impact. Relying on these genetically engineered crops has created more problems, and in the end, farmers may be forced to rely on them in order to kill the "super weeds" that those herbicides create time and time again.

GREEN IS GOOD