Farmers Were Promised Greater Returns If They Grew Genetically Modified Crops

In 1996 Monsanto introduced commercially a genetically engineered cotton with in-seed insect-protection against the cotton bollworm. In 1997 Monsanto introduced commercially a transgenic corn which had in-built protection from the European corn borer. Also, that year, a new transgenic cotton variety which had both bollworm resistance and glyphosate tolerant properties.

Farmers were promised higher yields and lower costs and thus more profit if they grew these transgenic crops. Have the biotech companies been able to deliver on these assurances.

India.

According to Andrew Malone writing in the Daily Mail, it is right what Prince Charles said about thousands of farmers in the Maharashtra state, India, committing suicide after running up large debts due to the crop failure of genetically modified pest proof varieties of Bt cotton. The farmers were promised that the genetically engineered Bt cotton would not need pesticides, would be free of disease and insect pests. Instead their Bt cotton was devastated by the parasite pink bollworm. This was because the Bt cotton is resistant to green bollworm but not pink bollworm.

Though the yields were lower some forty percent of farmers did manage to make a small profit, as compared to the sixty percent of farmers who made a loss, from growing the cotton. But because the quality of the Bt cotton is poor, the fibres are shorter, farmers are paid a reduced amount per kilo. So farmers who grow Bt cotton have lower yields and get reduced returns on the Bt cotton they do produce. Why would any farmer aspire to grow transgenic Bt cotton.

To make matters worse the seeds sold to the farmers are "terminator" seeds. This means that the cotton plants only beget infertile seeds. So even if the farmer does manage to obtain even a low yield of cotton he can't make use of these seeds to plant next years crop but has to purchase more seeds every year and these transgenic seeds are very expensive.

South Africa.

Farmers in three provinces -- North West, Free State and Mpumalanga, in South Africa -- have had up to eighty percent crop shortfall with three varieties of genetically engineered corn. Monsanto blamed the crop failures on a mistake in the laboratory, made during the seed forming process. Opponents of genetically modified foodstuffs, however, say that the science behind genetic modification is at fault.

Super-weeds.

Another inconvenience of growing transgenic crops that are made to be tolerant of glyphosate is that over time when crops are sprayed with the weed killer, the weeds also become resistant to the herbicide. According to The International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds there are now nine weed species, in different areas within the United States, that are resistant to the glyphosate herbicide.

When you consider that glyphosate is one of the most toxic and most popular of all herbicides then once a weed species becomes tolerant to it, it may be hard to find a herbicide that will eradicate the weeds but leave the food crop standing.

When farmers are finding their arable land infested with these super-weeds they are been advised to increase the amount of glyphosate they normally use on the food plants and if this does not fix the problem they are advised to add a number of different weed killers. So farmers end up by spraying the food crops with many diverse types of weed killers including considerable amounts of glyphosate. Using more herbicides means more costs and lower returns.

Georgia, United States.

The state of Georgia is being invaded, not by Triffids, but by pigweed (Palmer Amaranth). Over one-hundred thousand acres of arable land in Georgia is seriously infested with this glyphosate tolerant superweed says weed specialist Stanley Culpepper from the University of Georgia.

Pigweed is a fast-growing, drought-resistant, incredibly prolific weed that smothers the cotton plants starving them of sunlight, nutrients and water. The infestation has got so bad that some farmers are weeding their Bt cotton plants by hand. Other farmers are giving up and abandoning their acreage to the weeds.

Long Term Trends.

The evidence seems to suggest that growing genetically modified crops will eventually lead to smaller yields and greater costs, which means eroded profits.

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