Re: GM crops increasing pesticide use in US, new report

Correction: one too many dubya's slipped  into the URL given
Find the report  at: http://www.biotech-info.net/technicalpaper6.html

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 10:32:20 +0100, Torsten Brinch
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>
>Genetically Engineered Crops Now Increasing Pesticide Use in the
>United States
>
>The planting of 550 million acres of genetically engineered (GE) corn,
>soybeans and cotton in the United States since 1996 has increased
>pesticide use by about 50 million pounds, according to a report
>released today by the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy
>Center. The report is the first comprehensive study of the impacts of
>all major commercial GE crops on pesticide use in the United States
>over the first eight years of commercial use, 1996-2003. It draws on
>official U.S.  Department of Agriculture data on pesticide use by crop
>and state. The report is entitled "Impacts of Genetically Engineered
>Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Eight Years,"
>and is the sixth in a series of "Technical Papers" prepared for Ag
>BioTech InfoNet. It is being  published today via the Internet (hard
>copies will not be provided, but can be printed for free from the
>website).
>
>The report calculates the difference between the average pounds of
>pesticides applied on acres planted to GE crops compared to the pounds
>applied to otherwise similar conventional crops. In their first three
>years of commercial sales (1996-1998), GE crops reduced pesticide use
>by about 25.4 million pounds, but in the last three years (2001-2003),
>over 73 million more pounds of pesticides were applied on GE acres.
>
>Substantial increases in herbicide use on "Herbicide Tolerant" (HT)
>crops, especially soybeans, accounted for the increase in pesticide
>use on GE acres compared to acres planted to conventional plant
>varieties. Many farmers have had to spray incrementally more
>herbicides on GE acres in order to keep up with shifts in weeds toward
>tougher-to-control species, coupled with the emergence of genetic
>resistance in certain weed populations.
>
>"For years weed scientists have warned that heavy reliance on
>herbicide tolerant crops would trigger ecological changes in farm
>fields that would incrementally erode the technology's effectiveness.
>It now appears that this process began in 2001 in the United States in
>the case of herbicide tolerant crops," according to Benbrook.
>
>The report concludes that the other major category of GE crops, corn
>and cotton engineered to produce the natural insecticide Bacillus
>thuringiensis (Bt) in plant cells, continues to reduce insecticide use
>by 2 million to 2.5 million pounds annually. The increase in herbicide
>use on HT crop acres, however, far exceeds the modest reductions in
>insecticide use on acres planted to Bt crops, especially since 2001.
>
>The 46-page report is posted on Ag BioTech InfoNet at
>
>http://wwww.biotech-info.net/technicalpaper6.html