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Monsanto and the Roundup Ready Controversy

Revision as of 19:01, 7 February 2006 by 24.180.11.170

(Note: In addition to the issues raised on this page, there are a host of other concerns with genetic modification. Furthermore, the issues and statistics in the fast-paced biotech world are ever in flux. The reader is encouraged to visit the other websites at the bottom of the main article Monsanto for more and up-to-date info.)

Monsanto is considered the Mother of agricultural biotech. Their "Roundup Ready" crops have been genetically engineered to allow direct application of the Monsanto herbicide glyphosate allowing farmers to drench both their crops and crop land with the herbicide so as to be able to kill nearby weeds without killing the crops (1). "RR soybeans are heavily herbicide dependent" [1] [2] says Charles M. Benbrook, an expert in the field.

This is because the "Roundup Ready System" is primarily a "no-till" system. Rather than the traditional tilling of the ground to control weeds the RR system relies on its herbicide to control them, "No-till cropping systems are the most demanding with regards to weed control. The crop is seeded directly into untilled soil with no follow-up cultivation. Weed control depends entirely on herbicides" [3].

The draw for farmers is the promised reduced cost and thus extra profit over traditional systems. Says this Monsanto blurb "no-till soybeans grown in narrow rows add $16 per acre more to a grower's bottom line than conventional soybeans.... On a 1,000 acre farm, no-till can save as much as 450 hours of time and 3,500 gallons of diesel fuel each year. That's 11, 40-hour weeks in time savings and $4,000 less for diesel at $1.15 per gallon" [4]. However the weed control advantage of the no-till vs. conventional system has been disputed [5].

The rise of the superweeds

Among the issues with GMOs, the manufacture of herbicide tolerant (HT) biotech crops, particularly Monsanto's RR crops, has resulted in the creation of hard-to-kill "superweeds." [6]

In October 2005, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, "On two separate soybean fields in the northwest part of the state [Missouri], scientists have found common waterhemp, also known as pigweed, that shows signs of resisting glyphosate herbicide." Farmers had planted Roundup Ready soybeans on the same fields every year since 1996. "Waterhemp taken from their fields last year withstood eight times the recommended dose of Roundup. If field studies planned for next summer show that the ability is inherited by new generations of waterhemp - something that [University of Missouri at Columbia assistant professor and extension weed scientist Kevin] Bradley considers 'highly likely' - then it will be classified as Roundup resistant," wrote the newspaper. [7]

Precisely because the RR System was specifically designed to allow a more liberal use of Monsanto's herbicide, Roundup, (primarily, some say, to increase profits for Monsanto), this overuse itself (similar to the escalating quandary of antibiotic overuse in humans) is prompting the evolution of resistance to and thus a loss of efficacy for the herbicide, something that Benbrook refers to in his 2004 report Genetically Engineered Crops and Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Nine Years as "the unraveling of HT technology". Suggestions to control resistance include increasing the applications which, of course, only exacerbates the problem [8].

As their quandry escalates farmers in the RR system are now having to rely on other, more toxic herbicides in an attempt to control the weeds, "highly toxic herbicides, some of them banned in other countries, which glyphosate was supposed to replace, have had to be brought back in use in addition to glyphosate. These include 2,4D, 2,4DB, Atrazine, Paraquat, Metsulphuron Methyl, Imazethapyr." [9]. See also Argentina's bitter harvest

Furthermore engineered crop volunteers and weeds are even evolving resistance to multiple herbicides (gene-stacking) requiring ever stronger chemicals to kill [10]. Moreover studies indicate that genes engineered to instill resistance to herbicides can migrate to non-GM crops - such as those that may be found on a neighboring farm, and even related wild plants - among the very weeds the herbicides were designed to kill (horizontal gene transfer, transgene escape) via pollen. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]. See also [18]. This has alarmed many in the scientific community.

Says the article: Cross-Pollination Leads to Triple Herbicide Resistance [19]:

One of the risks frequently cited in association with transgenic crops is the escape of a foreign gene via sexual reproduction. The recipient plant in such cases may be a non-transgenic variety of the same crop or a sexually compatible relative. Depending on the gene and trait considered, adverse environmental or agricultural impacts may result from such transfers, ranging from issues of genetic purity of neighboring crops to the generation of "super weeds."

While this issue is receiving increasing attention by researchers, a recent report by Hall et al. [2] describes a truly remarkable example of herbicide resistance transfer via pollen among Brassica napus varieties. What is unusual here is not so much that it happened at all, but that it occurred rapidly and multiple times, such that, through completely random crossing, certain plants were found to be resistant to three different herbicides.

Monsanto's reply to the HT transference issue, originally flat-out denial, is now to claim that the actual incidence of transference is very low and thus not a problem. That assertion though is quite deceptive as an Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage demonstration risk assessment quiz demonstrates. [20] Even with an very low initial outcrossing rate but also considering the number of hectares planted, in just two years time the amount of viable HT hybrid seeds and thus plants could number in the millions. They would, of course, continue to mushroom after that.

Regarding the need for more study of this Paul E. Arriola, Associate Professor of Biology at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois said in a personal correspondence "Scientists expressing concern about negative consequences for wide scale GM release have recommended for years that GM producing companies make available probes that could be used for long-term monitoring, but the call has fallen on deaf ears in both industry and the federal government". Providing appropriate genetic probes would, he says "violate company policy" regarding Monsanto's "confidential business information" and thus "it is not likely to happen".

Herbicide resistance and sales

There is now an attempt to verify worldwide how bad the problem of herbicide resistance has become. WeedScience documents (so far) "304 Resistant Biotypes, 182 Species (109 dicots and 73 monocots) and over 270,000 fields" [21] [22] [23]. Most of the resistances here are due to herbicide overuse in general however because those weeds tolerant of Roundup are closely associated with our food supply and the because of the ubiquity of Roundup Ready crops they are a particular concern.

According to this site the 2003 total for GM crops was 167.2 million acres and says Monsanto "The potential for expansion for Roundup Ready crops also is significant.... For example, Roundup Ready corn currently is used on 3 million acres, but the global potential is more than 200 million acres." [24]

According to Carl Casale, Vice President of Monsanto, the land area in the United States used for cultivation of RR crops in 2002 "increased from 3 million U.S. acres in 1996 to more than 97 million U.S. acres" [25]. "The explosion in the adoption of glyphosate-resistant crops outpaces any other adoption of technology in modern history (including the tractor, fertilizer and hybrid corn)" [26].

While glyphosate has been marketed for nearly 30 years, its use in placing significant selection pressure on major weeds has only been since the introduction of RR soybeans in 1996. In six short years, since the introduction of RR crops, the use of glyphosate has grown 2.5 times, and in the Midwest, its use has increased even more. Some 33 million pounds of glyphosate were sprayed on soybean crops alone in 2001, a five-fold increase from 1995, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Yet no matter how well glyphosate controls weeds today, take note: resistance is happening. Almost all weed scientists agree the increasing evolution of resistant biotypes is inevitable with the current use pattern of glyphosate. Their warning: increased adoption of a rotation relying solely on RR crops will contribute to the rate at which resistance evolves. [27]

Benbrook found that after an initial reduction in herbicide use lasting a couple of years when GM crops are first planted, herbicide use then begins to increase. Indeed as predicted a recent report shows that, contrary to industry claims of reduced herbicide use, herbicide usage has increased in the United States on GM HT crops by 138 million pounds to date. Under the heading PESTICIDE REDUCTION CLAIMS ARE UNFOUNDED the report states "The increase in herbicide use on HT crop acres should come as no surprise. Weed scientists have warned for about a decade that heavy reliance on HT crops would trigger changes in weed communities and resistance, in turn forcing farmers to apply additional herbicides and/or increase herbicide rates of application. The ecological adaptations predicated by scientists have been occurring in the case of Roundup Ready crops for three or four years and appear to be accelerating".

It concludes, "the average acre planted to glyphosate-tolerant crops is requiring more and more help from other herbicides, a trend with serious environmental and economic implications" [28].

This is not to mention the fact that most people who aware of the issue are not comfortable with herbicides/pesticides on their food in the first place, let alone in increasing amounts. And this upward spiral in resistance/usage can be expected to continue. A related issue is the growing resistance of insects to GM Bt crops [29] [30] [31].

If all this weren't enough, exposure to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) increases the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other serious health concerns. [32] [33]. See also [34] [35] [36]. Additionally, as with other herbicides such as Atrazine, the use of Roundup has been linked to the decimation of frogs worldwide [37]. This is truly unfortunate as it is estimated that a single frog can consume 10,000 garden/farm pests in a growing season [38].

(1) Glyphosate products such as "Rodeo" and "Accord" along with a lengthy list of other herbicides, are also applied liberally by local governments to aquatic environments such as streams, rivers, ponds, lakes and reservoirs often simply because certain wild plants therein are deemed 'aesthetically undesirable'. A shortened list [39].

(2) Hall L, Topinka K, Huffman J, Davis L, and Good A. 2000. Pollen flow between herbicide-resistant Brassica napus is the cause of multiple-resistant B. napus volunteers. Weed Science 48: 688-694

"What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it’s really a consolidation of the entire food chain" - Robert Fraley, co-president of Monsanto's agricultural sector 1996, in the Farm Journal. Quoted in: Flint J. (1998) Agricultural industry giants moving towards genetic monopolism. Telepolis, Heise.

"People will have Roundup Ready soya whether they like it or not" - Ann Foster, spokesperson for Monsanto in Britian, as quoted in The Nation magazine from article "The Politics of Food" [40] by Maria Margaronis December 27, 1999 issue.

"If Monsanto hid what it knew about its toxic pollution for decades, what is the company hiding from the public now? This question seems particularly important to us as this powerful company asks the world to trust it with a worldwide, high-stakes gamble with the environmental and human health consequences of its genetically modified foods" [41]. -Environmental Working Group

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