Problems with herbicide-tolerant cotton in US
According to a report by the Center for Ethics and Toxics, farmers throughout the mid-south region of the US began experiencing problems with Roundup Ready cotton in August 1997 as cotton bolls began falling off the genetically engineered plants.
The failing cotton plants contained an inserted gene that should make the plants able to withstand two seasonal applications of Roundup herbicide (Monsanto's brand name for the herbicide glyphosate). The Center for Ethics and Toxics is a California-based, non-profit organisation.
Roundup Ready cotton was grown commercially in the US for the first time this year. In early spring, approximately acres 240,000 hectares of the bio-engineered crop, created by Monsanto, were sown across the cotton belt. This equals about 2.3% of the 5.7 million hectares of cotton planted nationwide.
Approximately three quarters of the way through the growing season, some cotton bolls became misshapen after the second Roundup application and began to fall off the plants.
In August, Robert McCarty of the Bureau of Plant Industry in Mississippi stated, "We are receiving complaints from farmers everyday." According to McCarty, the complaints were all identical: the bolls become deformed and subsequently fall off the plant.
According to McCarty, there were at least 8000 affected hectares in Mississippi alone. "Some farmers are losing $1 million due to this problem", he said.
The failure is occurring in Roundup Ready Paymaster varieties #1244, #1215, #1330 and #1220. These same varieties without the Roundup Ready gene were used in the two previous years without any apparent problems.
Researchers at the Center for Ethics and Toxics stated, "We tried to speak to a Monsanto scientist to ask why crop failures are occurring and were told that the information is not available. The US government does not require this type of reporting, leaving the public and the farming community alike in the dark about the true cause of the problem."
[From Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service.]