Sanet Post, Steve Verhey
RE: Biotechnology and Pesticides
March 21, 1997

Joel,

I'm inclined to agree with your suggestion that we avoid a "Dark Ages type approach," rejecting modern science and its potential for reducing pesticide use, not to mention its potential for increasing understanding of how plants themselves deal with pests (see for example Charles Benbrook's recent posts on this).

That said, I think it's important to keep two points in mind. The first isn't new, but bears repeating, while I haven't seen much discussion of the second.

1. Resistance to plant-produced BT *will* occur. It's just a matter of time. Monsanto and the other biotech companies know this, so it's hard not to think they are intentionally squandering this resource for short-term gain.

2. I'd be interested in hearing Peter Drucker's thoughts on this, because I too think the population argument for increased engineering is specious. Monsanto knows this too, and here's how I know they do: as a plant molecular biologist, I have the opportunity to attend seminars and symposia on the subject. At one symposium last year, a scientist from Montsanto gave a talk that focused on impending population growth and food shortages, and connected these problems with Monsanto's work on engineering plants for herbicide and disease resistance. After he was finished, I raised my hand and asked, "where, in Monsanto's vision of how we're going to feed all these people, is the food going to be grown?" The speaker, who happened to be from India, knew exactly what I was asking, and he became very flustered, giving basically a non-answer to my question.

I'm not convinced engineering is the answer to the world's food problems because plant production isn't the only problem that needs solving. What about soil loss and desertification, to give just one example of another serious problem. Monsanto's vision seems to be that the US will grow traditional US crops for sale to the countries with the increasing populations. How will the countries pay for the food? There are examples of scientists who are earnestly working on engineering plants that are actually grown in the countries that need/will need food the most, but Monsanto appears to have no real interest in that direction.

Immense resources in both academic science and industrial science have been brought to bear on the goal of genetically engineering plants for increased productivity. I just wish I were more convinced that focusing on this one issue, at the expense of many other worthy ones, was truly the answer to the problem.

Steve Verhey
Washingtion State University