Pesticides Make a Comeback

[question everything]

Insecticide sales are surging after years of decline, as American farmers plant more corn and a genetic modification designed to protect the crop from pests has started to lose its effectiveness... But it has sparked fresh concerns among environmental groups and some scientists that one of the most widely touted benefits of genetically modified crops—that they reduce the need for chemical pest control—is unraveling. At the same time, the resurgence of insecticides could expose both farmers and beneficial insects to potential harm.

Until recently, corn farmers in the U.S. had largely abandoned soil insecticides, thanks mostly to a widely adopted genetic trait developed by Monsanto Co. that causes corn seeds to generate their own pest-killing toxins, but which the Environmental Protection Agency says doesn't hurt humans. The modified seeds, first introduced in 2003, proved to be largely effective against the corn rootworm, a voracious bug that is the main scourge of the nation's largest crop. Today, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, two-thirds of all corn grown in the U.S. includes a rootworm-targeting gene known as Bt.

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In 2011, however, entomologists at Iowa State University and the University of Illinois started to document rootworms that were immune to the Monsanto gene, and have found these resistant pests scattered across the Midwest. Now, many farmers have decided they need to spray their soil to kill any rootworms that have developed Bt resistance, as well as growing populations of other pests.

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Also driving insecticide use is the rising share of farmland planted to corn, as farmers seek to take advantage of corn prices that are about double their historic norms. U.S. farmers planted 97 million acres of corn last year, the most since the 1930s and up from 75.7 million in 2001.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323463704578496923254944066.html

(if clicking does not open the story, copy and paste the title onto google)

[Buzz Clik]

1. Bt corn is an item with days that are numbered.

Time to develop a new one.

Thinking people know that you must control pests.