SOUTHERN SUSTAINABLE FARMING # 12
SEPTEMBER 1996
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
The first widespread commercial use of a genetically engineered cotton seed has fallen short of bollworm control in up to half the planted acres across the South. The failure of the BollgardR seed to live up to implied promises may result in the loss of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) as perhaps the most effective tool of organic farmers and integrated pest management practitioners.
Even a best-case scenario would require farmers to continue insecticidal spraying to supplement the genetic controls, an expense many were led to believe would be a thing of the past.
The worst-case scenario is economically and environmentally staggering. If Bollgard's failure leads to a super-resistant strain, conventional farmers, rather than having a tool that would reduce insecticide use, would be forced to spray more frequently. Organic farmers could lose their most useful tool, with nothing to replace it on the horizon.
The timing for many cotton farmers couldn't be worse. Those who survived last year's beet armyworm disaster were hoping for a good crop to get them back on their feet. Others are trying to recoup losses from required payments to boll weevil "eradication" programs that they've already voted out. And in Texas, the worst drought since the 1950s has sent projected yields plummeting.
Just as failing to take a full course of antibiotics leads to antibiotic-resistant strains of germs, failure to prepare Bollgard seeds with lethal doses of Bt can lead to Bt-resistant pests.
"If you accept their claim about why this damage has occurred, then there is no way in hell they can stop resistance," said Dr. Margaret Mellon, director of the Agriculture and Biotechnology Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The damage occurred in up to half of the almost two million acres of Bollgard cotton planted throughout the cotton belt. Monsanto will not be specific about the exact number of affected acres. In a telephone interview with Southern Sustainable Farming, Gary Barton, Monsanto's biotechnology spokesman would be no more specific than to say "less than half" of the planted acres have been sprayed, but said the number was closer to the high side of half.
Bollgard costs the same or slightly more than regular cotton seed. Monsanto requires a $32 per acre technology licensing fee. Monsanto counts on the $32 being less than what would have been spent on insecticide spraying. The Union of Concerned Scientists and others have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend sales of Bollgard pending an investigation. EPA is looking at the situation, but no results have been announced.
Monsanto insists there is no problem, at least no long-term problem. Barton said some reports were of bollworm presence 40 times greater than previously recorded. Allen Knutson, an entomologist with the Texas A&M research station in Dallas, said that in North Texas, with a heavy infestation, Bollgard worked well.
Barton said Bollgard achieved 95 percent or better control in the areas where spraying was required, and with that amount of control, "resistance is just not an issue at all with the bollworm." However, in an August 14 letter to Science magazine, Randy Deaton, Monsanto's product development manager, seems to contradict his colleague. "Monsanto is well aware of the potential for pests to adapt to the Bt protein." The letter discusses refuges as a resistance management technique and says with proper refuge use, "resistance development in the bollworm can be delayed significantly."
One of Monsanto's competitors also thinks resistance is a problem. Abbott Laboratories used the Bollgard problems to push spraying one of its products on Bollgard fields "to insure Bt resistance management."
"Monsanto should listen more carefully to its critics; it could learn something," said Michael Sligh of the Rural Advancement Fund International. "At a conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the spring, an impressive group of entomologists and other scientists agreed that the question of resistance is not a matter of whether, but when."
Keith Jones, director of agriculture and rural development programs at the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, Texas, said Monsanto should address its responsibility. "Those who make the mistakes seem never to have to pay the price. In this case, farmers are going to have to spray more, we may have stronger pests that require stronger pesticides and Bt could be rendered useless in a wide range of crops."
Monsanto contends that it has too much invested in Bollgard not to be on top of the situation. "Anyway, our primary sales are in herbicides, not insecticides," Barton said. "We don't stand to benefit if Bollgard fails."
8/19/97