Soya realities expose GM hype

Yields down and pesticides up

May 2001

A damning report on the performance of Roundup Ready soya beans has recently been published authored by Dr Charles Benbrook, former Director of the Department of Agriculture at the US Academy of Sciences. Contrary to the theoretical promises of higher yields and lower herbicide usage it is now clearly established that this technology has delivered exactly the opposite in practice (see: AgBioTech InfoNet Technical Paper Number 4 May 3, 2001 - http://www.biotech-info.net/troubledtimes.html).  

The biotechnology industry has reacted rather feebly to this report - certainly unscientifically - by stating that it cannot be accurate because of the huge number of farmers that have adopted the technology.  This reaction conveniently ignores some important basic market-place realities:

1. It assumes that farmers have had access to objective agronomic information on Roundup Ready soya bean performance before making their variety selections (this has not been the case right from the outset - see: www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/gmlemmings.htm )

2. It assumes that farmers are being given a full choice when selecting varieties to plant. Arising from Monsanto's dominance in the US soya seed market increasingly conventional varieties are being phased out so that farmers have little choice but to plant Roundup Ready varieties.

3. Because a technology is highly used does not mean it is the most effective. It may mean it has been the most successfully marketed (for example VHS video players were able to beat off competition from the technically superior Betamax through more effective marketing strategies. Some would also argue the same in relation to Apple's Macintosh computer operating systems, compared to Microsoft's 'Windows').

4. An 1998 opinion poll carried out by the Leopold Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University of approximately 800 farmers in Iowa revealed that most (53%) chose RR beans because they thought they produced higher yields than non-GM varieties. But when actual data from their farms was analysed the opposite was found (i.e. most farmers were unaware of the negative yield performance of the new beans they were growing - this would substantially explain an illogically high uptake of the technology).

In contrast to the AgBioTech InfoNet report the huge acreage of Roundup Ready soya being grown in the US tells us very little about the efficacy and usefulness of this technology from an objective scientific perspective.    Below are some comments from the AgBioTech InfoNet report executive summary.

A full copy of the report, entitled "Troubled Times Amid Commercial Success for Roundup Ready Soybeans" is available at: http://www.biotech-info.net/troubledtimes.html .  

NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex

Footnote:
For more information on the poor performance of Roundup Ready soya see University of Nebraska study at: www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/gmnebraskasoycomment.htm

Troubled Times Amid Commercial
Success for Roundup Ready Soybeans

Glyphosate Efficacy is Slipping and Unstable Transgene
Expression Erodes Plant Defenses and Yields

AgBioTech InfoNet Technical Paper Number 4
May 3, 2001

[extracts from executive summary - full document available at
http://www.biotech-info.net/troubledtimes.html]

"RR soybeans clearly require more herbicides than conventional soybeans, despite claims to the contrary. This conclusion is firmly supported by unbiased field-level comparisons of the total pounds of herbicide active ingredient applied on an average acre of RR soybeans in contrast to conventional soybeans....

Looking ahead to crop year 2001, it is likely that the average acre of RR soybeans will be treated with about 0.5 pounds more herbicide active ingredient than conventional soybeans. As a result over 20 million more pounds of herbicides will be applied this crop year......

There is voluminous and clear evidence that RR soybean cultivars produce 5 percent to 10 percent fewer bushels per acre in contrast to otherwise identical varieties grown under comparable field conditions to conventional soybeans....

Soybean yields have been increasingly erratic across the Cornbelt in recent years. Many fields have suffered yield losses far greater than expected given the magnitude of the RR yield drag. The search is on for answers and recently some have emerged.

University of Arkansas scientists have shown that root development, nodulation and nitrogen fixation is impaired in some RR soybean varieties and that the effects are worse under conditions of drought stress or in relatively infertile fields. This problem arises because the bacterial symbiont responsible for nitrogen fixation in soybeans, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, is very sensitive to both Roundup and drought......

As new soybean weed control options emerge and are integrated into multitactic soybean weed management systems, fewer farmers will be willing to accept the trade-offs and costs now inherent in selection of a RR variety......troubled times lie ahead for RR soybeans because the efficacy of glyphosate is clearly slipping in managing weeds and because unanticipated yield penalties are surfacing in some RR fields, traced to how genetic engineers have modified soybean plants to make them Roundup Ready. As farmers begin to understand the practical implications of what researchers have recently discovered, interest will grow in other less costly ways to manage soybean weeds.....

Inserting transgenes into major plant metabolic pathways is a risky proposition that is likely to lead to unanticipated consequences, especially when plants are stressed by unusual weather, pests, or infertile or imbalanced soils......

The lack of independent research on the ecological, agronomic and plant defense consequences of RR soybeans, until well after regulatory approvals and widespread market penetration, blindsided regulators and has heightened the vulnerability of farmers.

It is remarkable that over 100 million acres of Roundup Ready soybeans were planted in America before publication in 2001 of the first university data documenting the sometimes-serious depression of nitrogen fixation in RR soybean fields.

Ignorance creates a false sense of security and sets the stage for trouble. The U.S. regulatory system is better at avoiding problems that dealing with them once a technology is entrenched, with profits and market share to defend. In the case of RR soybeans, the regulatory system&rsquos ability to ferret out risks and resolve uncertainties was, in effect, silenced because regulators had little to go on in formulating questions."

Cropchoice.com commentary, May 3, 2001

Stop press: See also work published in the peer reviewed 'Agronomy Journal', Vol 93, Issue 2: 408-412 (2001), April 2001- click here

Scrambled Genome of Roundup Ready Soya - ISIS report

"Herbicide Impact on Fusarium spp. and Soybean Cyst Nematode in Glyphosate-Tolerant Soybean"
ISU Weed Science Online - Are RR weeds in your future?
"MU researchers find fungi buildup in glyphosate-treated soybean fields"