by Collie Tigges/EAT First!
ctigges@eatfirst.org
Why do eco-hypocrites continue the vendetta on GM foods? After all, genetic modification addresses many of the fears that the greens use to manipulate the media and frighten the ignorant. GMOs give the environmental groups what they claim to want: lower environmental impact, more land for wildlife, less use of chemicals, and safe, healthy food. Here are some facts to remember the next time you face an unin-formed dissident.
Biotech saves land for nature: The Save-the-Earth nuts want us to stop using land for anything but… well, for anything at all. Since the population of the world continues to grow and all these people continue to eat, farmers must either grow more food on less land or use more land. It’s that simple. GM crops can provide part of the answer with higher yields and soil maxi-mization. Norman Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and father of the Green Revolution, wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial: “In 1960 US production of the 17 most impor-tant food, feed and fiber crops was 252 million tons. By 1999 it had increased to 700 million tons (278% increase). And, the 1999 harvest was produced on 10 million fewer acres than were cultivated in 1960… If we had tried to produce the harvest of 1999 with the technology of 1960, we would have had to in-crease the cultivated area by about 460 million acres of land of the same quality—which we did not have.”
Biotech reduces pesticide use: During average years of insect pest pressure, Bt cotton yields have increased by approxi-mately 7%, while the amount of chemical insecticide applied has decreased by approximately 50%.
Bt corn yields have increased by approximately 10%, while US farmers have reported that they typically do not spray chemi-cal insecticides at all on fields of Bt corn. One can therefore cal-culate that for putatively similar insect control, 50,000 tons per year of chemical insecticide would be theoretically avoided if the sixteen largest corn-producing states in America were to convert 80% of their corn acreage to Bt varieties.
Biotech reduces environmental impact: Biotechnology has sped the move toward no-till farming (no-till is exactly what it sounds like – farming without plowing). The effects of the current Midwest drought have been dramatically lessened by no-till methods made possible by the use of herbicide resistant bio-tech crops. This year’s US soybean harvest is expected to be more than 75% biotech, with herbicide-resistant varieties planted on 90% of soybean farms. In no-till operations seeds are planted directly into the residue (roots and stalks) left from the prior crop. Herbicide resistant crops allow weed control without dis-turbing the soil crust. New-generation herbicides are benign to wildlife and soil organisms, break down quickly in the soil, and adhere tightly to soil particles so they do not leach into drinking water supplies. Their ‘environmental footprint’ is far less than wind and water erosion from plowed fields. No plowing also means a reduction in the burning of fossil fuels and less carbon dioxide released. (that should make the global warmers happy)
GM food is safe and healthy: GM food is safe. Period. The EPA agrees that it is safe. The USDA has given its stamp of approval. The FDA has decreed that it is safe. Even the Euro-peans, who spent 15 years and $64 Million studying GM foods, have concluded that they are just as safe as foods produced through conventional agriculture. Dr. Jay Lehr, Science Director for the Heartland Institute, summed it up best when he wrote, “Perhaps the most amazing unchallenged statistic that tells the story of biotech safety is that in the past two decades, there has not been one allergic reaction or illness attributed to eating foods produced through bioengineering. If only the same could be said for the conventional food we eat!”
A downloadable report, “Let the facts speak for themselves: The contribution of agricultural crop biotechnology to American farming”, is available at www.agbioworld.com. It responds to 20 common myths and misperceptions about ag biotechnology in plain language.
Reprint permission given by AgAir Update, P.O. Box 850, Perry, GA 31069 - an international agricultural aviation publication.
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