Title: Monsanto’s newest herbicide tolerant crops may create more problems
[Wired 02 Feb 2015 by Brandon Keim] — The latest in a new generation of genetically engineered crops is poised to enter widespread use—and critics think they’ll cause more problems than they solve. Proponents of the new cotton and soybean varieties, engineered by Monsanto to tolerate spraying with multiple herbicides, say they’re a much-needed tool. “These weed management solutions will provide farmers with more consistent, flexible control of tough-to-manage broadleaf weeds,” said Monsanto in a press release issued after the US Department of Agriculture approved the crops for use last month. But others think the benefits will at best be short-lived. Weeds may soon become resistant to the new herbicide mixtures, resulting in new generations of ever-more-intractable weeds that will need to be controlled with yet more herbicides.The new crops now await commercial deployment pending an ongoing review by the Environmental Protection Agency. If approved, it will “demonstrate once again that biotechnology in agriculture is all about increasing pesticide use and dependence,” said Bill Freese, a science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that opposes the crops. In a critique of the USDA’s evaluation, Freese warned of “an era of much increased use of and dependence on pesticides.”The cotton—technically known as MON 88701, or Bollgard II® XtendFlex™Cotton—can survive exposure to three herbicides: dicamba, glufosinate and glyphosate. The soybeans—MON 88708, or Roundup Ready 2 XtendTM Soybeans—withstand dicamba and glyphosate. The crops’ resistance means that farmers can spray entire fields of these crops with the herbicides, rather than laboriously targeting individual weeds. | Continue reading … | ${imageDescription} Comment|
Existing versions of Monsanto’s cotton and soybeans are resistant only to glyphosate, better known by its trade name of Roundup. Developed in the late 1990s, these so-called Roundup Ready varieties soon became hugely popular, now accounting for some 75 percent of all US cotton and 90 percent of soybeans.
Over-reliance turned America’s agricultural landscape into an evolutionary crucible of accelerated selection for any genetic mutation that helped weeds survive glyphosate. The resulting plants, often called “superweeds,” proliferated dramatically, and now infest at least 61 million acres of US farmland, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Michigan.
Their spread is sending farmers scrambling for solutions. The industry’s response has focused on making crops withstand more herbicides: first Dow’s Enlist corn and soybean varieties, designed for spraying with both glyphosate and the 2,4-D herbicide, which were federally approved last fall, and now Monsanto’s Xtend cotton and soybeans.
In reviewing genetically engineered crops, the USDA is tasked with determining whether they are “plant pests,” causing direct or indirect risks to agricultural crops and other plants. The Xtend cotton and soy varieties, said the USDA, are not: According to the agency’s final environmental impact statement, they are “unlikely to pose a plant pest risk.”
The herbicide savings, however, are unclear. Though non-glyphosate herbicide applications have increased dramatically in recent years, they’re still relatively low-volume—especially in comparison to projected dicamba use in the Xtend system.
Monsanto expects Xtend will eventually account for half of all US cotton planting and 40 percent of soybeans. Dicamba application would increase 14-fold on cotton in comparison to current use rates, and 88-fold on soybeans. For the latter crop, Freese estimates that farmers will use an additional 20 million pounds of herbicides every year.
