GMOs Gone Wild, Part One

GMOs Gone Wild, Part One:

It's the classic Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) apocalyptic scenario: GM plants uncontrollably interbreeding with natural plant life. The bulk of GM plants / crops are created to resist pesticides by implementing a gene that resists applications of herbicide, so the farmer doesn't have to weed, thus subsidizing an industry by machinery and chemicals. The kind of mindset that promotes sapping the land for all its worth (to create a bigger profit gain) creates unfair shift in balance making food more expensive for poor nations and very inexpensive for rich ones as well as boosts a number of social, economic and health problems worldwide. For now, we'll just talk about the mutations and the plants willful escape from boundaries set to contain them.

According to Dupont Biotechnology,

The cost of weed control in U.S. agriculture is greater than the combined cost of controlling insects, plant pathogens and nematodes. On average, the total cost of weeds to U.S. agriculture exceeds $12 billion/year: $ 8 billion in control costs plus $4 billion in lost yields. For example, U.S. cotton growers spend approximately $200 million/year on weed control, but still lose 15% of the cotton crop, which has an average value of $600 million/year.

Of the $8 billion spent annually on weed control in the U.S., approximately $ 2 billion is for herbicides. Three crops account for 75% of the $4 billion in annual crop losses and the $2 billion spent each year on herbicides - corn, cotton and soybeans. Globally, $10 billion is spent on herbicides.

Now, it's true that these are big numbers. Bigger numbers than I can comprehend, but one thing I'd like to point out is that the claim for $4 billion in crop losses is potential crop loss. The very fact that there is herbicide use in the first place actually puts in a crop gain, not a loss. These kinds of figures are misleading, in my opinion, to encourage sympathy from other business people because everybody wants to gain all, lose none.

The fact is that the "gain all, lose none" mentality is both dangerous and unrealistic. Like any living being, land will create a resistance to abuse and either become aggressive or lose luster to the point of mimicking death. Monoculture crops that depend on herbicide use will kill the soil; if superweeds build resistance to the herbicides and start to spread outside of their boundaries, this could create a serious problem for everybody, not just farmers. Continue to Part Two...

Photo credit cooperativegrocer.coop