Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service
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October 7, 1997
Problems with Herbicide Tolerant Cotton in U.S.
According to a report by the Center for Ethics and Toxics, farmers throughout the mid-south region of the U.S. began experiencing problems with Roundup Ready cotton in August 1997 as cotton bolls began falling off the genetically engineered plants.
The failing cotton plants contained an inserted gene that should make the plants able to withstand two seasonal applications of Roundup herbicide (Monsanto's brand name for the herbicide glyphosate). The Center for Ethics and Toxics is a California-based, non-profit organization.
Roundup Ready cotton was grown commercially in the U.S for the first time this year. In early spring, approximately 600,000 acres of the bioengineered crop, created by Monsanto, were sown across the cotton belt. This equals about 2.3% of the 14 million acres of cotton planted nationwide.
Approximately three quarters of the way through the growing season, some cotton bolls became misshapen after the second Roundup application and began to fall off the plants. These failings reportedly occurred in the states of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana.
In August, Robert McCarty of the Bureau of Plant Industry in Mississippi stated, "We are receiving complaints from farmers everyday." According to McCarty, the complaints were all identical: the bolls become deformed and subsequently fall off the plant. Bill Robertson, a cotton specialist in Arkansas claims that farmers in his state had similar problems. "We call the malformation 'parrot beaked,' because the bolls look like the beaks of parrots, then they fall off of the plant before they are mature," Robertson said.
The first reports of the crop failure estimated that between 4,000 - 5,000 acres were affected, although according to McCarty, there were at least 20,000 affected acres in Mississippi alone. "Now that is a lot of acreage, economically speaking. Some farmers are losing $1 million due to this problem," he said.
According to Karen Marshall of Monsanto, "There are a number of environmental factors that can put stress on cotton plants." But the failures do not appear to be occurring in all cotton varieties, just those that are genetically engineered to withstand Roundup. Sunny Jeter, a marketing representative for Monsanto, insisted that the failure was only occurring in a very small portion of the Roundup Ready cotton crops. She emphasized that Monsanto is being very proactive in getting information to farmers about the problem. However, Tommy McDaniel, a State of Mississippi agricultural specialist stated that "Monsanto is not talking to anyone and they are not saying what is causing the problem."
The failure is occurring in Roundup Ready Paymaster varieties #1244, #1215, #1330, and #1220. These same varieties without the Roundup Ready gene were used in the two previous years without any apparent problems.
Researchers at the Center for Ethics and Toxics stated, "We tried to speak to a Monsanto scientist to ask why crop failures are occurring and were told that the information is not available. The U.S. government does not require this type of reporting, leaving the public and the farming community alike in the dark about the true cause of the problem."
According to the Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Director of Biotechnology and Scientific Services admitted he was "totally unaware of the problem."
"We think this result underscores our concern that mass planting of transgenic crops are at the least premature," said Britt Bailey from the Center for Ethics and Toxics. "We are left with disturbing questions as transgenic crops go into mass production. How much are we willing to jeopardize the evolutionary future of food crops? How much uncertainty is generated by transgenic creation of new plants?"
Source: "Genetically Engineered Cotton in Jeopardy," by Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey, Center for Ethics and Toxics, September 10, 1997.
Contact: Center for Ethics and Toxics, Box 673, 39175 S. Highway 1, Gualala, CA 95445; phone (707) 884-1700; fax (707)
884-1846; email cetos@cetos.org; http://www.cetos.org.
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