Genetic Engineering News List Insect Experts Issue 'Urgent' Warning On Using GM Seeds Dan Charles NPR, March 9 2012 http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/148227668/insect-experts-issue-urgent-warning-on-using-gm-seeds This week, a group of scientists sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urging farmers to stop planting genetically engineered corn with a certain gene because it will no longer protect them from the corn rootworm. If the recommendations are put into practice, it could cause major changes in the way that seed companies like Monsanto do business. For America's agricultural biotech companies, the corn rootworm is threatening to turn into their worst nightmare. Last year, we reported that a major insect pest, the corn rootworm, had "found a chink in the armor" of genetically engineered crops. In several different places across the corn belt, the insects have developed resistance to an inserted gene that is supposed to kill them. Now, in a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released this week, 22 of the nation's top experts on corn pests lay out some of the implications of this discovery, and they are potentially profound. In order to slow down or prevent the spread of resistance, the scientists are calling for big changes in the way that biotech companies, seed dealers, and farmers fight this insect. The scientists urge the agency to act "with a sense of some urgency." The re-thinking that's laid out in this letter, in fact, goes beyond what the EPA is able to do under current law. For instance, the researchers want seed companies to stop routinely inserting anti-rootworm genes into their most productive hybrid seed lines. According to the letter, this practice means that farmers "often have few options" apart from rootworm-protected seeds - even in some areas where rootworms don't pose a serious problem. When farmers plant hybrids that contain the same gene, year after year, it dramatically increases the chances that this gene quickly will become useless, because insects will become resistant to it. The researchers are calling on farmers in some parts of the country to stop planting corn with anti-rootworm genes altogether, or to plant such corn only intermittently. Patrick Porter, from Texas A&M University, who coordinated drafting of the letter, tells The Salt that some of these recommendations will be dismissed as "impractical" by many farmers and seed companies. But the group's credentials are impressive. It includes most of the non-corporate researchers who are currently trying to evaluate the extent and consequences of corn rootworm resistance. If the recommendations in this letter were, in fact, put into practice, it would compel wrenching changes in the way that major seed companies like Monsanto and DuPont breed and market their corn seed. Monsanto issued a statement responding to the scientists' letter, asserting that rootworms has caused excessive damage on just 0.2 percent of the acres where farmers planted Monsanto's rootworm-protected corn. This year, scientists from the companies and also universities plan to monitor fields for rootworm damage much more carefully than in the past. So far, researchers have found insects that are resistant to just one of the three different anti-rootworm genes currently on the market. (For those of you who care about the details, it's called Cry3Bb1.) New corn hybrids now are on sale that combine two different anti-rootworm genes. In theory, if the toxins produced by these genes kill rootworms in different ways, this "pyramid" of genes should dramatically reduce the chances of insects developing resistance. So the EPA is allowing corn growers to plant this new "SmartStax" type of corn on a larger area - up to 95 percent of a grower's corn acres. Many scientists think this is a big mistake. They've collected data showing that the two genes, working together, are indeed more effective than any single gene - but the combination is not nearly as effective as people had hoped. In addition, "SmartStax" corn is being planted in areas where some insects may already be resistant to one of the genes, so it's not a true pyramid. "It raises real questions about how stable this house of cards is," says Kenneth Ostlie, from the University of Minnesota. The economic consequences of widespread corn rootworm resistance to genetically engineered crops could be enormous. Farmers who want to plant corn on their fields every year - and even farmers in some areas who rotate corn and soybeans - would be forced to rely on chemical insecticides. But Paul Mitchell, at the University of Wisconsin, says those insecticides don't work very well, and yields could suffer. Any significant dip in the corn harvest, Mitchell says, could produce "a huge spike" in the price of corn. Some farmers could adopt other ways to control rootworm, rotating their fields into crops where corn rootworms cannot easily survive, such as wheat or alfalfa. But Porter says that's simply not an option for many farmers; they have to plant the most profitable crop - corn - in order to compete economically. "A lot of the time, farming is run by bankers now," he says. Two experts who were not part of the group that sent the most recent letter, Fred Gould of North Carolina State University and Bruce Tabashnik, at the University of Arizona, have called on the EPA to require farmers to plant much larger "refuges" of corn that is not toxic to rootworms. They say it's the only reliable way to slow down insect resistance. But Porter says that's not possible, at least this year. There's simply not enough conventional corn seed for such large refuges. He's wary of sudden regulatory shifts that could fundamentally disrupt production: "If we do the wrong thing, we could see corn at $15 per bushel." That's more than twice what corn costs today. Source: NPR Scientists warn EPA on Monsanto corn rootworm Carey Gillam Reuters, March 9 2012 http://whtc.com/news/articles/2012/mar/09/scientists-warn-epa-on-monsanto-corn-rootworm/ A group of plant scientists is warning federal regulators that action is needed to mitigate a growing problem with biotech corn that is losing its resistance to plant-damaging pests. The stakes are high - corn production is critical for food, animal feed and ethanol production, and farmers have increasingly been relying on corn that has been genetically modified to be toxic to corn rootworm pests. "This is not something that is a surprise... but it is something that needs to be addressed," said Joseph Spencer, a corn entomologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, part of the University of Illinois. Spencer is one of 22 academic corn experts who sent a letter dated March 5 to the Environmental Protection Agency telling regulators they are worried about long-term corn production prospects because of the failure of the genetic modifications in corn aimed at protection from rootworm. Monsanto introduced its corn rootworm protected products, which contain a protein referred to as "Cry3Bb1," in 2003 and they have proved popular with farmers in key growing areas around the country. Biotech corn sales are a key growth driver of sales at Monsanto. The corn rootworm product is supposed to reduce the need to put insecticides into the soil, essentially making the corn plants toxic to the worms that try to feed on their roots. But plant scientists have recently found evidence that the genetic modification is losing its effectiveness, making the plants vulnerable to rootworm damage and potentially significant production losses. The scientists said in their letter to EPA that the situation should be acted upon "carefully, but with a sense of some urgency." As concerns have mounted over the last year that Monsanto's rootworm-protected products were losing their effectiveness, Monsanto has said the problem is small and has said the products continue to provide corn farmers with "strong protection against this damaging pest." Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, has recommended growers rotate the corn with its biotech soybeans, use another of its biotech corn products and use insecticides to try to address the problem. "Rootworm performance inquiries in 2011 were isolated to less than 0.2 percent of the acres planted with Monsanto rootworm-traited corn hybrids," said Danielle Stuart, a Monsanto spokeswoman. "In all of these cases, Monsanto is working very closely with the farmer and has provided best management practices for the upcoming season on each of these fields. " The problems with insect resistance have been reported in parts of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota. Continuing to plant a failing technology only increases the resistance development risk, the scientists said in their letter. Moreover, they say, the rootworm-protected BT corn is being planted in areas that have no need for it, often because there are few alternative seed options. Scarcity of non-BT corn seed is a concern, they said. Using insecticides along with the biotech corn as Monsanto has advised is not a good approach, according to the scientists, because it elevates production costs for farmers and masks the extent and severity of the building insect resistance. "Recommendations to apply insecticides to protect transgenic Bt corn rootworm corn strikes us as a clear admission that the Cry3Bb1 toxin is no longer providing control adequate to protect yield," the scientists wrote. "When insecticides overlay transgenic technology, the economic and environmental advantages of rootworm-protected corn quickly disappear," the scientists wrote. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs Director Steven Bradbury, who the letter was addressed to, could not be reached for comment. (Reporting By Carey Gillam;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid) ................................................................ The Genetic Engineering News is produced by Thomas Wittman and EcoFarm, and supported by a generous donation from the Newman's Own Foundation.  Please pass this vital information on.  If you would like to get on this list go to www.eco-farm.org and select Newsletters.