Messing with nature backfires
Re: “Fields of gold … or plains of ruin?” June 7 Based on the headline, and knowing that GMO (genetically modified organism) crops have led to much lively debate, I was expecting an article that explored the pros and cons. What I found was a somewhat one-sided discourse that repeated many of the industry mantras without suggesting there might be more to these issues.
Take pesticide use as an example. Several times the article notes the claim that GMOs allow producers to “use less herbicide.” This doesn’t make sense when you consider that many GMO crops are engineered to be herbicide-tolerant. The fact that a plant is tolerant to a herbicide such as glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) means that it is able to absorb the herbicide, but continue to thrive. Glyphosate is systemic, meaning it’s absorbed into the plant and kills it by disrupting normal metabolic processes. Therefore it’s in all parts of the plant.
In 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised the limit on residual glyphosate in oilseed crops from 20 parts per million to 40. This was done after lobbying by Monsanto, a major producer of GMO crops — and Roundup. Herbicide sales are closely linked to GMO sales. Crop Life Canada, an industry lobby group, notes in its 2012 annual report that we had sales of $1-billion worth of “developer’s seeds with novel traits” in Canada, and sales of $1.7-billion worth of crop “protection products.” Monsanto alone had herbicide sales of $1.5 billion in its first quarter, reported last January, just slightly less than they made from the sale of seeds. Herbicides are big business, and they are inextricably linked to GMOs.
Herbicide-resistant weeds have already emerged and producers have had to up the ante, applying more herbicide or moving to more toxic products. This system is not sustainable — in 20 years alone, we’ve seen that nature responds and adapts quite quickly.
We have been farming for thousands of years, but now have the ability, within one generation, to upset that balance. We are killing many living organisms in the soil, making it sterile and less productive. We are continually adding more toxic chemicals to our environment in a bid to stay ahead of nature. In the meantime, what will be the cumulative effect of consuming glyphosate in all these food products?
I suspect GMOs will have a major impact, but not in the way this article describes.