[SustainableTompkins] Biosafety & GMOs

[Tony Del Plato]

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FE Debate

Will GM crops reduce dependency on pesticides and protect environment?

Environmental disaster in the making

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=146846

KAVITHA KURUGANTI
Posted online: Monday, November 20, 2006 at 0020 hours IST

A recent Cornell University report has answered this question very well
through a study done in China to assess Bt cotton that is in its seventh
year of cultivation there. Growing secondary pest populations have slowly
eroded the benefits of Bt technology, the study concludes, pointing out that
total pesticide use and expenditure for Chinese Bt cotton farmers is the
same as their conventional counterparts. The study shows a three-fold
increase of pesticide use now compared to the initial years of Bt cotton
adoption, taking back the Bt cotton farmers to nearly the same levels of
pesticide use as before the advent of Bt cotton, thanks to such changes in
farm ecology. This is inevitable, as any knowledgeable farmer would tell
you.

Similarly, data from the US compiled from USDA data, 10 years after the
adoption of GM crops, shows that the use of chemicals has only increased
with GM crops even as super-weeds and super-pests (not easily controllable
by the chemicals used earlier) are emerging.

Experience in India from various studies shows that sucking pests are higher
on Bt cotton and the pesticide use has not come down as promised. Further,
there are newer diseases emerging on Bt cotton -- official monitoring by
state governments records this.

It should be realised that even a few sprays of pesticides will damage the
farm ecology by killing beneficial insects too and GM crops incidentally are
not guaranteeing a complete elimination of such pesticides! They target only
specific insects with their reductionist science. That is not the case with
many non-chemical alternatives, however.

Very often GM crops are shown as part of an IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
approach. A closer look will show that GM crops are actually defying many
IPM principles. For example, IPM does not advocate a single chemical with
the same mode of action and asks for alternation of methods/chemicals with
different modes of action. In India, thanks to the generous giving away of
the 'Bt' genes on a payment by some institutions, all major crops are being
converted into Bt crops -- Bt Brinjal, Bt Rice, Bt Tomato, Bt Cabbage, Bt
Cauliflower, Bt Maize and so on. It does not take a genius to guess what
kind of an environmental disaster this monoculture would lead to.

What is also interesting to note is that the biotech industry would like to
paint itself environment-friendly while on the one hand, there are no
guarantees against potential environmental hazards from GM crops and on the
other, most major players in the biotech industry are selling agri-chemicals
and have a major chunk in the pesticide industry themselves! The same
players who thrust agri-chemicals down our throats are now saying that these
chemicals are bad and therefore, GM crops should be adopted. How about
getting accountable for the damage caused so far?

Important also is the recognition that pesticide reduction and elimination
can be achieved through simple political will as the Indonesian example
shows us. This does not require the answer of GM crops, which comes with a
baggage of several undesirable, unpredictable and irreversible environmental
and health hazards. One of the glaring problems with decision-making related
to GM crops is that the rationale of pesticide use reduction is being
employed for glossing over the many ill-effects that they bring along.

It should be realised that the basic problem that the farmer has begun with
is pest management and not pesticide management. Our experience in thousands
of acres of NPM (Non-Pesticidal Management of crops) shows that elimination
of pesticide use itself is enough to restore farm ecologies and to improve
the environment.

(The writer is consultant, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Secandrabad,
Andhra Pradesh, India)
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