After 7 Yrs. Of Bt Cotton, Farmers Losing Money As Other Bugs Thrive

[hatrack]

After 7 years of planting cotton genetically engineered to kill bollworms, other insects have boomed so much on Chinese farms that their owners are losing money.

The new finding, from a study of nearly 500 cotton farmers, is likely to be controversial because it suggests that the genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton, named for the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterial gene it contains, doesn't live up to the agricultural success story suggested by some earlier studies. China was the second country after the United States to adopt Bt cotton, in 1997. After 2 or 3 years of use, studies showed that the cotton had dramatically boosted yield and helped farmers to cut their use of insecticides by as much as 70%, saving money and protecting both people and the environment from the toxic chemicals.

The new study, conducted 7 years after the cotton's introduction, paints a gloomier picture of the crop's economic impact. Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, worked with Chinese agricultural researchers to interview cotton farmers about their finances and insecticide use in 2004.

The researchers found that populations of other cotton pests, particularly ones called mirids, have blossomed. These were once killed by the same broad-spectrum pesticides used to control the bollworm. Now, farmers are spending almost as much on pesticides to control these secondary pests as those farmers growing regular cotton. Because Bt seed is more expensive, this means that the Bt cotton farmers have a net average income that is 8% lower than farmers growing conventional cotton. "It's kind of a shock," says team member Shenghui Wang, who presented the results today at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting in Long Beach, California.

EDIT

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060724/full/060724-5.html

[drm604]

1. How about that?

I guess it makes sense if you think about it. The whole theory behind BT cotton would seem to be assuming that the bollworm is the only cotton pest or that the usual pesticide for it is only effective against it and nothing else. Remove those assumptions and the whole economic justification collapses. In hindsight it seems like this should have been predictable.

[bananas]

3. It was predicted. nt

[MountainLaurel]

2. Nature will find a way

It's a fairly standard event in the animal kingdom: One predator dies back, another takes over.

[bemildred]

4. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt

[Gman]

5. Nature is all about balance

something is missing, something else takes its place. That's how global warming works. Its about extremes and balance between those extremes.

[kestrel91316]

6. Gee, no one could ever have forseen THIS.

I guess nobody ever taught the Chinese that nature abhors a vacuum.

[NNadir]

7. It's called selection pressure.

There's a lot of selection pressure these days.

[Javaman]

8. Grow hemp instead.

uses a lot less water and is far more bug resistant.