----- Original Message -----
From: "Ashwani Vasishth" <[log in to unmask]>

Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2003 12:51 AM
Subject: News: Weeds Move to Counter Genetic Engineering


WEED 'EM AND WEEP
In a finding that undermines one key argument in favor of genetically
modified (GM) crops, researchers at Iowa State University have
discovered that a number of "superweeds" have developed a resistance
to Monsanto's widely used Roundup herbicide.  Monsanto has engineered
crops that are tolerant of Roundup, the idea being that the chemical
would kill everything in a field but the desired crop, thereby
freeing farmers from using additional herbicides and leading to an
overall decrease in the use of chemicals.  But if superweeds gain a
foothold, farmers will again need other herbicides.  "Companies like
Monsanto have spun GM crops and their weed killers as having less
impact on the environment, but the fact of resistant weeds
undoubtedly means more weed killers, and means the impact on the
environment will be greater," said Pete Riley of Friends of the
Earth.  "These discoveries remove a central plank from the whole
argument for GM crops."

straight to the source:  London Independent, Michael McCarthy, 23 Jun
2003
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=1272>


 * * *

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=418070

Superweeds' signal setback for GM crops
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

23 June 2003

The dispute over genetically modified crops will intensify today with
news
of the evolution of "superweeds", which are resistant to the powerful
weedkillers that GM crops were engineered to tolerate.

The development, which comes as the sacked former environment minister
Michael Meacher puts himself at the head of the anti-GM campaign, will
be
seized on by opponents of the technology as undermining its rationale.

It means that bigger quantities of weedkillers - not less, as the
biotechnology companies have claimed - will be needed in GM-crop fields,
adding to the already intensive agriculture that has wiped out much of
Britain's farmland wildlife in the past four decades. Monsanto, the GM
market leader, confirmed to The Independent at the weekend that its
solution for dealing with resistant weeds was to apply different
weedkillers in new ways.

In yesterday's Independent on Sunday, Mr Meacher accused Tony Blair, a
GM
supporter, of seeking to bury health warnings about GM produce by
"rushing
to desired conclusions which cannot be scientifically supported".

The revelations about superweeds have been communicated to the
Government
by an American academic specialising in weed control, who has posted a
paper on the website of the official GM science review, led by Professor
David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser. This will report
soon in advance of a long-delayed decision, due this autumn, on whether
GM
crops should be commercialised in Britain.

The paper, by Professor Bob Hartzler of the Department of Agronomy at
Iowa
State University, reveals that in the past seven years, up to five weed
species have been found with resistance to the herbicide glyphosate,
best
known by the Monsanto trade name Roundup. The resistance has come about
not through gene transfer from GM herbicide-tolerant crops, as some have
feared, but through natural evolution.

Glyphosate is a "broad spectrum" herbicide, meaning that, originally, it
killed everything, including crops. GM crops were developed to be
tolerant
of the herbicide, so it could be applied throughout the growing season.

Two GM crops proposed for commercial growth in Britain, fodder beet and
sugar beet, are glyphosate-tolerant. But weeds have been found in
Australia, Chile, Malaysia and California and other areas of the US,
that
glyphosate cannot kill.

Greg Elmore, Monsanto's US technical manager for soybeans, said Monsanto
was taking seriously the question of glyphosate resistance, tackling it
with "weed control management practices".

With soybeans, he said, resistant weeds were controlled with a
pre-planting "burn-down" (which kills everything), using 2,4-D, another
weedkiller.

At least three of the resistant weeds had evolved where glyphosate was
being used with non-GM crops, he said, adding that it was far from the
only weedkiller for which weeds had evolved resistance - as many as 70
weeds were resistant to some weedkillers.

Pete Riley, Friends of the Earth's GM campaigner, said: "Companies like
Monsanto have spun GM crops and their weedkillers as having less impact
on
the environment, but the fact of resistant weeds undoubtedly means more
weedkillers, and means the impact on the environment will be greater.

"These discoveries remove a central plank from the whole argument for GM
crops."

Yesterday, Mr Meacher listed a series of reports and findings suggesting
that the full impact of GM technology was still dangerously
unpredictable.
Many of the health tests carried out were "scientifically vacuous", he
said.

 * * *

27 June 2003 21:21

 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

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