Note: This article provides yet more reasons to oppose the commercial release of large-scale plantations of genetically engineered trees (also called genetically modified trees or GMO trees). But with GE trees, the threats carry over into the forests surrounding or nearby the plantations. Trees can spread their pollen and seeds hundreds to thousands of miles, potentially causing widespread and irreversible contamination of native forests. With GMO insect-resistant “Bt trees,” entire forest ecosystems could be devastated.
–The GJEP Team
By Terry Anderson, Midwest Producer News Editor, February 8, 2012
Cross-Posted from Midwest Producer News
SALINA, Kan. – A USDA scientist says the use of chemicals in farming needs to be examined because overuse can be harmful to agriculture operations.
“Rather than the first line of defense, chemicals should be the last,” said Jonathan Lundgren, lead research entomologist at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Brookings, S.D.
Lundgren was among the experts who addressed the No-till on the Plains Winter Conference. His topic: “Rising insecticide use: What pests are we shooting at?”
“Spray when it makes economic sense to do so, at the economic threshold,” he continued. “Killing every insect in a field is bad business.”
Modern day insect control took a major turn in 1948, when Nobel Prize winner Paul Muller discovered DDT and insects were no longer allowed to rule human life, Lund-gren said.
“Insects killed more soldiers than any war until DDT,” he said. “We started killing insects in agriculture whether it was a pest at all.”
It took only a decade to determine how dangerous DDT was, though it exists yet today and has caused “tremendous and long-term environmental effects,” he said. It is connected to birth defects, breast cancer, diabetes and brain damage.
GM, or genetically modified, crops emerged in the 1990s, with significant benefits. They were easy to use, safer than insecticides, extremely effective versus targeted pests and helped increase no-till acres with the emergence of Roundup Ready crops.
However, GM crops were expensive and were used whether they were needed or not, Lundgren said.
Today, Roundup Ready soybeans are planted in nearly 100 percent of soybean acres. Bt corn acres have steadily increased.
Lundgren said a study in eastern South Dakota corn fields in 2009 and 2010 showed almost no targeted pests at critical levels.
“So why are we investing so much on these corn varieties if we’re not at an economic threshold?” Lundgren asked.
He noted other Midwest studies that show planting Bt corn has driven corn borer levels so low, even those not planting Bt corn are benefiting. Indiana and Illinois no longer study the Eastern corn borer.
“Why are we planting Bt if it’s not needed?” he said “We could plant Bt every other year or every three years.”
This year, he said he sees an entirely new age of insecticides, with seed treatments on almost everything. The latest ag census showed considerable increase in seed treatments in 2007 and he said he expects the next ag census to be much more, “whether it’s needed or not.”
He said insecticides were “hammering predators,” such as lady bugs. “There are long-term effects. . . . The natural insect community never recovers.”
Lundgren said a two-year replicated soybean study with three treatments showed aphids were not affected by soybean seed treatments. Yields were almost the same on all treatments in both years of the study, he said.
The treatments would have been effective in the early stages of the plant growth, but aphids don’t arrive until July, when the seed treatment effectiveness already has expired, he said.
The soybean insecticide costs $10-15 per acre and also kills natural enemies of the pests, he said.
A major seed company challenged the results and said the study was isolated, Lundgren said.
The scientist said pesticides are being put into the environment unnecessarily.
“Pests are becoming resistant and the main answer we are hearing is: More of the same,” he said. “We need to take a step back and realize the pest problems are our own making.”
He added natural enemies of pests need to be re-incorporated into croplands. Those natural enemies, such as ants and beetles, save farmers billions of dollars every year. In soybeans alone, it’s $1.4 billion per year, he said:
There are several ways to conserve beneficial species, Lundgren said.
- Reduce soil disturbance by backing off on tillage.
- Don’t apply pesticides.
- Increase diversity of farms by crop rotation, intercropping, managing field margins, using cover crops, planting smaller plots with more crops, plant conservation strips and allow low-level weeds to provide protection for predators.
“If we manage healthy ecosystems, pests are not going to be a problem,” he said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. No-tillers who have practiced for years say they don’t use pesticides any more.”
