Environmental Groups Claim Rising Use of Pesticides on GE Crops

The Organic Center, Union for Concerned Scientists and Center for Food Safety have issued a report claiming that U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that the use of weed-killing herbicides on genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybeans and cotton has increased by 383 pounds over a 13-year period ending in 2008.

According to the preface to the report, titled “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years,” this finding will be “news to the public at large, which still harbors the illusion, fed by misleading industry claims and advertising, that biotechnology crops are reducing pesticide use. Such a claim was valid for the first few years of commercial use of GE corn, soybeans, and cotton. But, as this report shows, it is no longer.”

The report contends that widespread adoption of glyphosate-resistant crops “has vastly increased the use of glyphosate herbicide,” which “has spawned a growing epidemic of glyphosate-resistant weeds, just as overuse of antibiotics can trigger the proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria.” Farmers apparently have a number of options for responding to resistant weeds in their fields, and the report suggests that the most common “increase[] the pounds of herbicides applied.” Authored by The Organic Center’s chief scientist, Charles Benbrook, the report claims that these practices will heighten the “risk of birth defects and other reproductive problems” and have other “severe impacts” on the environment.

The organizations responsible for the report are calling for “new government and academic assessments of the performance, costs, and risks associated with today’s GE crops.”