Fwd: USDA Survey + Bt crop discovery

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:Tue, 1 Apr 2003 15:45:17 -0800

News Update from The Campaign

USDA Survey + Bt crop discovery

 

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

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Dear News Update Subscribers,

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics

Service has released their " Prospective Plantings " survey report for

2003. It includes the projected acreage that will be planted in

genetically engineered crops this year.

 

Unfortunately the percentages of acreage for both genetically engineered

soybeans and corn are increasing. Genetically engineered soybeans will

increase from 75 percent to 80 percent of the entire soybean crop.

Biotech corn will increase from 34 percent to 38 percent and cotton will

remain the same at about 70 percent.

 

If you would like to view the USDA " Prospective Plantings " 35-page

report, here is a link to the PDF version:

http://www.thecampaign.org/USDA2003.pdf

 

Since the 15 European Union nations and many other countries are not

buying genetically engineered corn and soybeans grown in the United

States, you may be wondering how farmers can continue to grow such large

amounts of these biotech crops. The primary reason is that the vast

majority of corn and soybeans grown in the United States go to feed

livestock or are used in processed foods.

 

Once we pass legislation to require the labeling of genetically

engineered foods, these figures will drop rapidly. But until we are

successful in passing the labeling legislation in the United States, we

can expect biotech crop plantings to maintain at these levels or even

slightly higher.

 

In the short-term, our biggest concern about such a large amount of

acreage being grown in genetically engineered crops is that organic

crops, especially corn, are being contaminated with genetically

engineered genes. It is irresponsible for the USDA to continue to allow

contamination of organic crops from the genetically engineered

varieties. The USDA is favoring the biotech industry at the expense of

the organic industry.

 

In the long-term, there is growing evidence that genetically engineered

foods could cause various health problems in humans. And history will

record that biotech crops can pose significant threats to the

environment.

 

Posted below are two articles. The first article titled " U.S. Farmers to

Grow More Biotech Crops " is about the new USDA survey.

 

The second article comes from a United Kingdom newspaper called The

Independent. It is an article titled " Insects thrive on GM

'pest-killing' crops. " This alarming article reports that scientists

from Imperial College London and the Universidad Simon Rodrigues in

Caracas, Venezuela have found the toxins in genetically engineered Bt

crops may actually make insects thrive rather than die.

 

It has previously been reported that the toxic effect of Bt crops is

losing its ability to kill insects. If it turns out that insects are

actually able to adapt to the point where the Bt toxin becomes food for

them, this will have significant negative ramifications for both the

biotech and the organic industries.

 

The long-term effect could be worse for the organic industry than the

biotech industry since Bt used in spray form is one of the few weapons

organic farmers have to battle severe insect infestation. The biotech

industry will likely come up with another toxic to splice into their

biotech crops. But organic farmers will be left without one of their

most important tools to fight insects as a result of overuse of Bt by

the biotech industry.

 

It is ironic that the U.S. continues to grow the most genetically

engineered crops in the world, yet is doing little research to determine

their health and environmental safety. And in other countries that are

not yet growing genetically engineered crops, they are conducting

research in advance and finding disturbing results.

 

Craig Winters

Executive Director

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

 

The Campaign

PO Box 55699

Seattle, WA 98155

Tel: 425-771-4049

Fax: 603-825-5841

E-mail: label

Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

 

Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots consumer campaign

for the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass

legislation that will require the labeling of genetically engineered

foods in the United States. "

 

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U.S. Farmers to Grow More Biotech Crops

 

By EMILY GERSEMA

..c The Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Europe's opposition to biotech food isn't stopping

U.S. farmers from planting more genetically engineered crops.

 

This spring, they're devoting fewer acres to growing corn and soybeans

but intend to plant more biotech crops than ever - part of a growing

trend, the Agriculture Department said Monday.

 

``This is only the fourth year that we've been tracking it, but from

that, it is the highest it's been,'' said Darin Jantzi, a department

statistician.

 

While U.S. consumers generally accept biotech foods, Europeans doubt

their safety. That concern prompted the European Union to put a

moratorium on U.S. biotech imports. It's been in place for four years,

costing the United States $300 million annually in corn exports.

 

However, an Agriculture Department survey says 38 percent of the 79

million acres of corn planted this year probably will be genetically

engineered. That's up four percentage points from last year and 13

percentage points over the 2000 crop.

 

Total corn acreage is projected to be almost the same as last year's

79.05 million acres - just 32,000 acres less.

 

U.S. farmers like biotech crops because they require fewer chemicals for

killing insects and weeds. They have been planting two main varieties,

one of which is known as Bt, or bacillus thuringiensis. It is

genetically engineered to fend off insects.

 

The other variety, Roundup Ready, allows farmers to spray and kill weeds

with Monsanto Co.'s Roundup herbicide without killing the corn plant.

 

Growers likely will plant more biotech soybeans, too. The department

predicts 80 percent of this year's 73.2 million acres of soybeans will

be a biotech variety engineered to tolerate Roundup. That's up five

percentage points from last year's biotech soybean crop and 16

percentage points over the 2000 crop.

 

The department predicts the soybean crop will be the smallest since

1998, down 1 percent from the 73.8 million acres grown last year. Many

growers are switching back to corn because wet weather last year

prevented them from planting it, forcing them to raise soybeans instead.

 

The survey is based on interviews with 75,000 growers in 48 corn states

and 31 soybean states.

 

Per Pinstrup-Andersen, a biotechnology expert at Cornell University,

said the government's projection for biotech planting is higher than he

expected.

 

``I would have thought that it would have been roughly constant compared

to last year, partly because of the market problems,'' he said,

referring to the United States' trade troubles with European Union.

 

Congressional lawmakers are pressing the White House to seek an end to

the dispute by complaining to the World Trade Organization.

 

They are especially nervous that Europe's anti-biotech sentiment is

spreading to developing countries since some African countries rejected

U.S. biotech food aid a few months ago.

 

However, U.S. farmers and exporters remain confident that other trading

partners will continue buying biotech food. That's why growers are

planting more biotech crops, said Hayden Milberg, lobbyist for the

National Corn Growers Association.

 

He said he believes farmers may double their biotech acreage in the

future, especially since the government recently approved Monsanto's new

rootworm-fighting corn for the market.

 

The new corn is engineered to contain its own pesticide, derived from

Bt, a natural soil bacterium. It protects the plant against rootworm, a

common pest whose larvae nibble at the plant's roots.

 

On the Net:

 

Planting Survey: http://www.usda.gov/nass/

 

03/31/03 16:01 EST

 

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Insects thrive on GM 'pest-killing' crops

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

 

The Independent (London)

30 March 2003

 

Genetically modified crops specially engineered to kill pests in fact

nourish them, startling new research has revealed.

 

The research – which has taken even the most ardent opponents of GM

crops by surprise – radically undermines one of the key benefits claimed

for them. And it suggests that they may be an even greater threat to

organic farming than has been envisaged.

 

It strikes at the heart of one of the main lines of current genetic

engineering in agriculture: breeding crops that come equipped with their

own pesticide.

 

Biotech companies have added genes from a naturally occurring poison,

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is widely used as a pesticide by

organic farmers. The engineered crops have spread fast. The amount of

land planted with them worldwide grew more than 25-fold – from four

million acres in 1996 to well over 100 million acres (44.2m hectares) in

2000 – and the global market is expected to be worth $25bn (£16bn) by

2010.

 

Drawbacks have already emerged, with pests becoming resistant to the

toxin. Environmentalists say that resistance develops all the faster

because the insects are constantly exposed to it in the plants, rather

than being subject to occasional spraying.

 

But the new research – by scientists at Imperial College London and the

Universidad Simon Rodrigues in Caracas, Venezuela – adds an alarming new

twist, suggesting that pests can actually use the poison as a food and

that the crops, rather than automatically controlling them, can actually

help them to thrive.

 

They fed resistant larvae of the diamondback moth – an increasingly

troublesome pest in the southern US and in the tropics – on normal

cabbage leaves and ones that had been treated with a Bt toxin. The

larvae eating the treated leaves grew much faster and bigger – with a 56

per cent higher growth rate.

 

They found that the larvae " are able to digest and utilise " the toxin

and may be using it as a " supplementary food " , adding that the presence

of the poison " could have modified the nutritional balance in plants "

for them.

 

And they conclude: " Bt transgenic crops could therefore have

unanticipated nutritionally favourable effects, increasing the fitness

of resistant populations. "

 

Pete Riley, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said last night:

" This is just another example of the unexpected harmful effects of GM

crops.

 

" If Friends of the Earth had come up with the suggestion that crops

engineered to kill pests could make them bigger and healthier instead,

we would have been laughed out of court.

 

" It destroys the industry's entire case that insect-resistant GM crops

can have anything to do with sustainable farming. "

 

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, said it showed that GM

crops posed an even " worse threat to organic farming than had previously

been imagined " . Breed- ing resistance to the Bt insecticide sometimes

used by organic farmers was bad enough, but problems would become even

greater if pests treated it as " a high-protein diet " .

 

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If you would like to comment on this News Update, you can do so at the

forum section of our web site at: http://www.thecampaign.org/forums

 

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