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'Mounting Evidence' of Bug-Resistant Corn Seen by EPA
Jack Kaskey
Bloomberg, September 5, 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-04/-mounting-evidence-of-bug-resistant-corn-seen-by-epa.html
There's "mounting evidence" that Monsanto Co. (MON) corn that's genetically
modified to control insects is losing its effectiveness in the Midwest, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency said.
The EPA commented in response to questions about a scientific study last month
that found western corn rootworms on two Illinois farms had developed resistance
to insecticide produced by Monsanto's corn. Rootworms affect corn's ability to
draw water and nutrients from the soil and were responsible for about $1 billion
a year in damages and pesticide bills until seeds with built-in insecticide were
developed a decade ago.
The agency's latest statement on rootworm resistance comes a year after the
problem was first documented and just as U.S. corn yields are forecast to be the
lowest in 17 years amid drought in the Corn Belt. Corn is St. Louis-based
Monsanto's biggest business line, accounting for $4.81 billion of sales, or 41
percent of total revenue, in its 2011 fiscal year.
"There is mounting evidence raising concerns that insect resistance is
developing in parts of the corn belt," the EPA said Aug. 31 in an e-mail.
The studies of rootworms in Illinois and Iowa don't confirm resistance in the
field, Kelly J. Clauss, a spokeswoman for St. Louis-based Monsanto, said in an
e-mail. More data is needed to prove resistance and the company is working with
the EPA to investigate and respond to fields where rootworms cause
"greater-than-expected damage," Clauss said.
YieldGard Corn
The hottest, driest summer since 1936 in the Midwest has damaged crops and
helped send corn prices to a record. Corn production may total 10.779 billion
bushels, 13 percent smaller than last year, even after farmers planted the most
acres since 1937, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Aug. 10.
Corn acreage is estimated by the USDA to rise 5 percent to 96.4 million acres
this year. Monsanto's rootworm-killing corn was planted on more than 37 million
acres last year, according to the company.
Corn futures for delivery in December on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.7
percent to $8.05 a bushel yesterday. They have gained 54 percent in the past
three months and traded at a record $8.49 on Aug. 10.
The EPA's focus is Monsanto's YieldGard corn, which is engineered to produce the
Cry3Bb1 protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a natural insecticide.
EPA Review
The EPA expects to get data on the performance of YieldGard from Monsanto within two months and complete its analysis by year-end, the agency said in its
statement, which was e-mailed by Stacy Kika, an EPA spokeswoman. The evaluation will include a review of scientific studies, it said.
"EPA is concerned about the reported resistance to Cry3bB1 in corn rootworm
populations in some parts of the country, as are others in the agricultural
community," the agency said.
The agency may implement "strategies" to reduce the threat of resistance to
Cry3Bb1, it said. Kika said she couldn't comment on what those strategies may
include.
The EPA may ban sales of the seed in affected counties as part of a remedial
action plan if resistance is confirmed, the agency said in its 2010 registration
of YieldGard.
'Superweeds' Problem
Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, introduced its rootworm-killing corn
technology in 2003. The corn-seed and traits unit's gross profit rose 16 percent
to $2.86 billion in the year ended Aug. 31, 2011.
Shares of Monsanto have climbed 24 percent this year. Syngenta AG (SYNN), the
world's largest producer of agrochemicals, has increased 17 percent in the
period.
Monsanto's worst resistance problem is with crops engineered to tolerate its
Roundup herbicide. "Superweeds" that Roundup no longer kills have invaded as
many as 20 million acres (8.1 million hectares) of corn and soybeans, according
to a Dow study. As many as 28 million acres of cotton, soybean and corn may host
Roundup-resistant weeds by 2015, according to Basel, Switzerland-based Syngenta.
The EPA requires farmers of Bt corn to plant a so-called refuge, an area of
non-modified corn that grows near the modified crop. The agency reasons that
bugs not exposed to the toxin will then mate with any resistant rootworms,
creating a new generation of insects that is once again susceptible to the
insecticide.
November Memo
Corn fields in four states -- Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska -- were
overrun by rootworm last year, prompting the EPA to say in a November memo that
Monsanto's bug-killing corn may be losing its effectiveness.
The agency also said at the time that Monsanto's program for monitoring
suspected cases of resistance was "inadequate." Monsanto said in December in
response to the EPA's comments that it believed there was no scientific
confirmation of resistance and that it was increasing efforts to teach farmers
about how to respond to unexpected crop damage.
The Illinois and Iowa studies into insect resistance were conducted by Aaron
Gassmann, an entomologist at Iowa State University. The Illinois study looked at
the progeny of rootworms collected last year at farms in Whiteside and Henry
counties, where the bugs had devoured the roots of corn plants, said Michael
Gray, an agricultural entomologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana, who
collected the bugs in their adult beetle phase.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Kaskey in Houston at
jkaskey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at
scasey4@bloomberg.net
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