[D66] FYI: Monsanto Corn May Be Failing to Kill Bugs, EPA Says

[Henk Elegeert]

FYI: Monsanto Corn May Be Failing to Kill Bugs, EPA
Says<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-01/monsanto-corn-may-be-failing-to-kill-rootworms-in-four-states-epa-says.html>
Q
By Jack Kaskey - Dec 2, 2011 10:31 PM GMT+0100

Monsanto Co. (MON) <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MON:US> corn
that’s genetically engineered to kill insects may be losing its
effectiveness against rootworms in four states, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency said.

Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois <http://topics.bloomberg.com/illinois/>,
Minnesota <http://topics.bloomberg.com/minnesota/> and
Nebraska<http://topics.bloomberg.com/nebraska/> are
suspected of developing tolerance to the plants’ insecticide, based on
documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from entomologists, the
EPA said in a memo dated Nov. 22 and posted Nov. 30 on a government
website<http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0922-0003>.
Monsanto’s program for monitoring suspected cases of resistance is
“inadequate,” the EPA said.

“Resistance is suspected in at least some portions of four states in which
‘unexpected damage’ reports originated,” the EPA said in the memo, which
reviewed damage reports.

The insects, which begin life as root-chewing grubs before developing into
adult beetles, are among the most destructive corn pests, costing U.S.
farmers about $1
billion<http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs2/04_12501p_com.pdf> a
year in damages and chemical pesticides, according to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture <http://topics.bloomberg.com/u.s.-department-of-agriculture/>
.

Monsanto fell 3.8 percent to $70.42 at the close in New
York<http://topics.bloomberg.com/new-york/>,
the tenth-biggest (SPX)
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SPX:IND> decline
among companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

“The stock is always going to be susceptible to headline risk as it
pertains to the effectiveness of their products,” Mark
Demos<http://topics.bloomberg.com/mark-demos/>,
a portfolio manager who helps oversee $18 billion at Fifth Third Asset
Management in Minneapolis <http://topics.bloomberg.com/minneapolis/>, said
by telephone. “They are leading the charge in biotech, so it’s bad for the
whole industry.”
Introduced in 2003

Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, introduced its rootworm-killing
corn technology in 2003. The modified corn was planted on more than 37
million acres this year, Lee Quarles, a spokesman for St. Louis-based
Monsanto, said yesterday. Monsanto isn’t having resistance issues with
seeds engineered to kill corn borers and other pests that live above
ground. Corn is Monsanto’s largest business, accounting for 41 percent of
its $11.8 billion of sales in the fiscal year ended Aug. 31.

An Iowa <http://topics.bloomberg.com/iowa/> State University study said in
July that some rootworms have evolved resistance to an insect-killing
protein derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a natural insecticide
engineered into Monsanto corn. Entomologists in Illinois and other
Midwestern states are studying possible resistance where the insects devour
roots of Monsanto’s Bt corn.
‘Stay Ahead’

Monsanto continues to believe there’s no scientific confirmation of
resistance to its Bt corn, Quarles said by telephone. Still, Monsanto takes
the EPA report “seriously” and is increasing efforts to teach farmers how
to respond to unexpected damage in their fields, he said.

Less than 0.2 percent of the acres planted with Monsanto’s Bt corn were
affected by unexpected rootworm damage this year, Quarles said. Farmers
with root damage in their fields should consider changing practices to
“stay ahead of this insect,” Monsanto said in a statement. That could
include rotating corn with soybeans or using a product such as Monsanto’s
SmartStax corn, which kills rootworms with two types of Bt, the company
said.

The EPA report “does throw a harsher light on the longer- term efficacy of
the trait,” Chris Shaw, a New York-based analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt &
Co., said today by telephone. The development of SmartStax shows Monsanto
knows it can’t rely on a single gene to address farmers’ problems, he said.
No Refuge

The agency said in the memo that SmartStax could lose its effectiveness if
it’s planted in fields where bugs have developed a tolerance to Monsanto’s
Bt gene, known as CRY3bB1. That’s because SmartStax’s effectiveness is
predicated on both types of Bt working as designed. SmartStax corn produces
the second type of Bt, called Cry34/35, with a gene licensed from Dow
Chemical Co. (DOW) <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DOW:US>

To deter resistance to all types of Bt corn, the EPA requires farmers who
use the modified crop to also plant corn that doesn’t produce the
pesticide. The agency reasons that bugs in the so-called refuge that are
not exposed to the toxin will mate with any resistant rootworms, creating a
new generation of insects that are once again susceptible to the
insecticide.

Some corn farmers don’t appear to be planting the required refuges in
Minnesota, where moderate to severe rootworm damage is spreading and
occurred for a third straight year in 2011, according to the EPA.
Remedial Action

The EPA’s decision earlier this week to extend the registration of
SmartStax, which was originally approved in 2009, shows that the resistance
concern “isn’t significantly important,”Mark
Gulley<http://topics.bloomberg.com/mark-gulley/>,
a New York-based analyst at Ticonderoga Securities, said in a phone
interview today.

Monsanto should enact a remedial action plan in fields where resistance to
its Bt insecticide is suspected, the EPA said. That includes having growers
use conventional pesticide to kill adult rootworm beetles late in the
season and alternate pest control methods in the following season.

Monsanto tested rootworms for resistance in Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa and
should expand the monitoring to
Colorado<http://topics.bloomberg.com/colorado/>,
Minnesota, South Dakota <http://topics.bloomberg.com/south-dakota/> and
western Wisconsin <http://topics.bloomberg.com/wisconsin/> because
questions about the performance of Bt corn extends to all seven states, the
EPA said in the memo.

Monsanto’s most advanced resistance problem is with crops engineered to
tolerate its Roundup herbicide. Weeds that are no longer killed by Roundup
have invaded 14 million acres of U.S. cotton, soybean and corn, according
to Syngenta AG (SYNN) <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SYNN:VX>,
a Swiss chemical maker. A Dow Chemical Co. study this year found as many as
20 million acres of corn and soybeans may be infested.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in Houston at
jkaskey at bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at
scasey4 at bloomberg.net

"

Aanvullend:

EPA Seeks Information on Resistance in Genetically Engineered
Plants<http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=6408>

(*Beyond Pesticides*, December 2, 2011) The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has opened a pesticide docket for information and reviews
relevant to insect resistance management for plant-incorporated protectants
(PIPs) -plants engineered through biotechnology to express pesticidal
properties. The agency intends to collect public information on insect
resistance management and monitoring for genetically engineered (GE) PIPs
after expressing concern that efforts to tackle resistance issues need to
be “more proactive” and effective in light of “severe” and rapidly growing
insect resistance to GE crops.

According to EPA’s Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division, the
agency is reviewing insect resistance management assessments submitted by
registrants in accordance with the ongoing terms and conditions of their
registered PIP products. PIPs are genetically engineered to incorporate
pesticidal properties in plant genes in order to ward off insects that prey
on the plants. PIPs are registered as a pesticidal product under the *Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act *(FIFRA). Many GE plants such as
corn, cotton and others include Bacillus
thuringiensis<http://www.beyondpesticides.org/gateway/pesticide/Bt.htm>
(Bt),
a bacterium with insecticidal properties whose genes have been incorporated
into the plant’s own genetic material. However, recent reports have shown
that these PIPs are spawning “superbugs” that have become resistant to this
technology. Monsanto, the lead manufacturer of PIPs, has created several Bt
genes including one called Cry3Bb1 which has been responsible for resistant
populations <http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=5876> of
western corn rootworm no longer susceptible to Bt.

According to documents in the newly opened docket, (Docket No:
EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0922<http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp=10;po=0;s=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0922>)
EPA reviewed Monsanto’s resistance monitoring data from 2009 for the
western rootworm which was submitted for registrations on Bt corn
containing the Cry3Bb1 gene. The agency concludes that based on multiple
documented cases of unexpected “severe” corn rootworm damage to Cry3Bb1
fields and other undocumented reports from corn entomologists, “Cry3Bb1
resistance is suspected in at least some portions of four states in which
“unexpected damage” reports originated and recommends that the Cry3Bb1
remedial action plan be implemented for “suspected resistance.” Further,
EPA states that the registrant’s (Monsanto) current resistance monitoring
program is inadequate and likely to miss early resistance events, stating
for efforts to be meaningful “a more proactive, effective approach needs to
be adopted.”

Roughly one-third of the corn grown in the U.S. carries Monsanto’s Cry3Bb1
gene, which means that, should populations of this rootworm spread, corn
farmers across the U.S. will be faced with heavy losses. Researchers from
Iowa State University discovered western corn rootworms in four Iowa fields
that have evolved and can resist the pesticide built into Bt corn seeds. So
far the cases are isolated, but can spread to neighboring regions. Farmers
in Illinois, for example, have been seeing severe rootworm damage in fields
planted in Monsanto’s Bt corn.

This past year EPA has been in touch with scientists in academia and at
USDA-ARS regarding Bt cron resistance issues in the Mid-west, notably Iowa,
Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota. In Nebraska, the 2011 growing season
marked the fourth year where moderate to severe rootworm damage in
Monsanto’s Cry3Bb1 corn was apparent. Resistance monitoring data for
Cry3Bb1 show that field-collected populations are generally less
susceptible to the toxin.

In 2009, every field-collected populations of rootworm had higher LC50
(concentration needed to kill 50 percent of the population) than laboratory
controls, in some cases by an order of magnitude. Monitoring data collected
from 2005 to 2009 appeared to show a large decrease in susceptibility over
the time period. One county in Illinois showed a six-fold increase in mean
LC50 from 2007 to 2008 (50.2μg/cm2 in 2007 to 300.9μg/cm2 in 2008).
Contributing to the growing resistance is the domination of monoculture
crops in this region. Records show that affected fields have been growing
Monsanto’s Cry3Bb1 corn for many successive years without crop rotation. In
fact, according to the data collected, a significant positive correlation
was detected between the number of years growers chose to plant Cry3Bb1 and
the survival on Cry3Bb1corn of insects from problem fields. Unfortunately,
many growers still plant the Bt corn despite the incidences of rootworm
damage and fall back on pesticide applications to control the adult corn
rootworm.

Resistance to GE crops is not new. “Roundup Ready” crops engineered to
survive exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, a glyphosate-based
chemical, has also spawned a new generation of Round-up resistance weeds
dubbed “superweeds <http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=5751>.”
These weeds, immune to Roundup, have spread to millions of acres in more
than 20 states in the South and Midwest. In addition to resistant weeds,
heavy use of Roundup sprayed on “Roundup Ready” crops appear to be causing
harmful changes in soil and potentially hindering yields of crops that
farmers are cultivating according to scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service <http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=5817>.
Growing previous Roundup Ready crops, such as soy, cotton, and corn, have
also led to greater use of herbicides, especially when these crops fail to
control the pests they are marketed to thwart.

There has long been a concern that EPA’s allowance of PIPs with Bt would
lead to the failure of a biological tool used in organic farming systems as
an alternative to highly toxic synthetic inputs. Organic farmers have
expressed concern since the introduction of PIPs in
2003<http://www.beyondpesticides.org/news/daily_news_archive/2003/2_28_03.htm>that
the overuse of Bt, which is inevitable when Bt is genetically engineered
into every cell of a plant, will lead to insect resistance and leave many
farmers without an important tool of organic agriculture. For more on
genetically engineered agriculture read Beyond Pesticides’ article “Ready
or Not, Genetically Engineered Crops Explode on
Market<http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/Spring2011/ge-explosion.pdf>
.”

Fortunately, GE crops are not permitted in organic food production. For
more information about why organic is the right choice see ourOrganic Food:
Eating with a Conscience
Guide<http://www.beyondpesticides.org/organicfood/conscience/>
.

To access the docket, visit: www.regulations.gov and go to docket
EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0922.

*Source: EPA Pesticide
News<http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/cb/csb_page/updates/2011/pips.html>
*
**

*All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond
Pesticides. *

*"*

Voedsel wordt nu het volgende probleem in onze toch al fragiele situatie
(dit nog los van de financiële manipulaties mbt voedsel) ?

Henk Elegeert
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.tuxtown.net/pipermail/d66/attachments/20111228/5bde90f6/attachment-0001.html>