Brazil: GMO 'Bt corn' no longer resists pest attack

[villager]

GMO corn varieties that express insecticidal Bt toxins are failing in the field, with reports of infestations of the fall armyworm on Bt corn in Brazil and the USA. Now the EU is poised to approve one of the failing varieties for use on European farms.

The Association of Soybean and Corn Producers of the Mato Grosso region (Aprosoja-MT) has complained that its members' genetically modified 'Bt corn' crops are no longer resistant to insect pests.

That's corn which has been genetically modified to produce an insecticidal toxin that repels or kills pests - principally Spodoptera frugiperda, also known as fall armyworm, corn leafworm or southern grassworm.

The Bt toxin is meant to provide protection to the crop without needing to be sprayed with insecticide. But reports from farmers allege that the Bt corn is actually less resistant to attack by Spodoptera caterpillars than non-GMO varieties. Now farmers have been forced to apply insecticides to their crops, racking up additional environmental and financial costs - after having already paid a premium price for the GM corn seeds.

The loss of resistance to Bt corn caterpillars was identified by Aprosoja-MT in March, when the first reports of emerged from Mato Grosso producers frightened by what they saw on the field. Aprosoja-MT began to gather technical reports with data, photos and economic analysis of producers' financial losses, estimated at $54 per hectare in terms of extra insecticide and application costs.

The association is now calling on Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, and Dow companies to offer solutions as well as compensate the farmers for their losses.

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http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2501027/brazil_gmo_bt_corn_no_longer_resists_pest_attack.html

[Trillo]

1. Stacked traits will have same result.

For the organic farmer, who would dust BT only at a narrow time window (vs 24/7) this will represent the loss of a valuable tool. Who will compensate them?

[BrotherIvan]

4. Excellent point

The smart farmers who choose not to go for the propaganda will also be hurt by this. Or worse yet, sued when some of the GMO varieties pops up in their fields. And now their crops have to face resistant bugs and weeds.

[wisechoice]

9. oh science

How everything changes in science.
But we have to redefine organic. And by the way everything is gmo. So this news is wrong.

[BrotherIvan]

2. And there you have it

the Bt corn is actually less resistant to attack by Spodoptera caterpillars than non-GMO varieties

Who could have known???????????????

[villager]

3. Certainly not the professionally-dispatched posters!

[BrotherIvan]

5. But but but...Science!

I'm sure they'll be along to explain it all to us Luddites soon.

[villager]

6. Your Luddite aversion to excess pesticide use directly hampers CEO bonuses!

and what if the lack is cut from the per-post-pay rate!?

[BrotherIvan]

7. Oh noes!

How will they ever afford the folksy graphic charts telling us how everyone in the world (except for dumb, superstitious, science-deniers such as yourself) loves them!! Or the folksy videos that were just put together by concerned citizens telling us all how wonderful and safe they are. Oh, the humanity!

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Wow. What is worse than Frankenstein food? Frankenstein food that does not even work.

What a scam.

[Overseas]

10. Perhaps they'll get the next edition of the pesticide producing seed free? Or does the small print

say that of course the insects will evolve resistance and they'll just have to keep purchasing more and more toxic seeds to mix in.