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November 18, 2009
· Biotech crops spawn jump in herbicide use
· The changing chemistry of the US corn belt
· GM soybeans may substitute as fish-oil source
· Food summit yields ‘crumbs’ on hunger’s plate
· Water on the moon: Can veggies be far behind?
Biotech crops spawn jump in herbicide use – report
(Reuters
via commondreams.org)
The groups said research showed that herbicide use grew by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008.
The report was released by nonprofits The Organic Center
(TOC), the
The groups said that while herbicide use has climbed, insecticide use has dropped because of biotech crops. They said adoption of genetically engineered corn and cotton that carry traits resistant to insects has led to a reduction in insecticide use by 64 million pounds since 1996.
Still, that leaves a net overall increase on
The rise in herbicide use comes as
Monsanto rolled out the first biotech crop, Roundup Ready soybeans, in 1996.
Monsanto officials declined to comment on the report. But the Biotechnology Industry Organization, of which Monsanto is a member, said the popularity of herbicide-resistant crops showed their value outweighs any associated detriments.
"Herbicide resistance crops are incredibly popular with farmers. They help them manage their weed problems in ways traditional crops don't," said Mike Wach, BIO managing director of science and regulatory affairs.
"If a farmer feels a crop is causing them more trouble than it is worth they will stop using it," Wach said. "Farmers are continuing to adopt these crops because they provide benefits, not liabilities and problems."
BIO officials pointed to a report issued earlier this year by PG Economics Ltd that said the volume of herbicides used in biotech soybean crops globally decreased by 161 million pounds, or 4.6 percent, from 1996 to 2007.
The report by the environmental groups states that a key problem resulting from the increase in herbicide use is the emergence of "super weeds," which are difficult to kill because they have become resistant to the herbicides.
"With glyphosate-resistant weeds now infesting millions of acres, farmers face rising costs coupled with sometimes major yield losses, and the environmental impact of weed management systems will surely rise," said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist of The Organic Center.
The groups additionally criticized the agricultural biotechnology industry for claiming that higher costs for genetically engineered seeds are justified by multiple benefits to farmers, including decreased spending on pesticides.
The group said biotech corn seed prices in 2010 could be almost three times the cost of conventional seed, while new enhanced biotech soybean seed for 2010 could be 42 percent more than the original biotech version.
"This report confirms what we've been saying for years," said Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety. "The most common type of genetically engineered crops promotes increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of resistant weeds, and more chemical residues in our foods. This may be profitable for the biotech/pesticide companies, but it's bad news for farmers, human health and the environment."
The changing chemistry of the US
(ZDNet) –
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says there are less toxic pesticides in
The USGS says, “Declines in concentrations of the agricultural herbicides cyanazine, alachlor and metolachlor show the effectiveness of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory actions as well as the influence of new pesticide products. In addition, declines from 2000 to 2006 in concentrations of the insecticide diazinon correspond to the EPA’s national phase-out of nonagricultural uses.”
“Scientists studied 11 herbicides and insecticides frequently detected in the Corn Belt region, which generally includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio, as well as parts of adjoining states. This area has among the highest pesticide use in the nation — mostly herbicides used for weed control in corn and soybeans. As a result, these pesticides are widespread in the region’s streams and rivers, largely resulting from runoff from cropland and urban areas.
“Elevated concentrations can affect aquatic organisms in streams as well as the quality of drinking water in some high-use areas where surface water is used for municipal supply. Four of the 11 pesticides evaluated for trends were among those most often found in previous USGS studies to occur at levels of potential concern for healthy aquatic life. Atrazine, the most frequently detected, is also regulated in drinking water.”
“Only one pesticide — simazine, which is used for both agricultural and urban weed control — increased from 1996 to 2006. Concentrations of simazine in some streams increased more sharply than its trend in agricultural use, suggesting that non-agricultural uses of this herbicide, such as for controlling weeds in residential areas and along roadsides, increased during the study period.”
“Glyphosate, an herbicide which has had rapidly increasing use on new genetically modified varieties of soybeans and corn, and which now is the most heavily used herbicide in the nation, was not measured until late in the study and thus had insufficient data for analysis of trends.”
Monsanto markets glyphosate as Roundup. Roundup does not meet with universal acceptance with some researchers questioning its safety.
The use of herbicides and pesticides is intensive in both the food industry and the biofuel industry that uses corn to make ethanol.
GM soybeans may substitute as fish-oil source
(Bloomberg) -- Diners who’d prefer to skip the salmon may no longer miss out on the fish’s omega-3 fatty acids, known to reduce heart disease.
Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed producer, genetically
engineered soybean plants to produce oil that helps boost levels of one such
acid and can be added to food for a healthier diet. Results from a 157-person
study of the oil’s potential benefits were presented today at the American
Heart Association meeting in
Fatty fish, such as albacore tuna, mackerel, sardines and
herring, may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease because it is high in eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, and docosahexaenoic
acid, or DHA, omega-3 fatty acids. Heart disease is the top cause of death
worldwide for both men and women, and the American Heart Association, based in
“Without the American public really having to go out of their way to develop a taste for fish, which they’re not going to do, we’ll put a healthy dietary component that’s been missing into their foods,” said William Harris, lead author of the study and professor of medicine at the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine, in Sioux Falls, in an interview.
The oil, whose taste is undetectable, may be incorporated
into breakfast bars and salad dressings, Harris said. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, based in
Approval Needed
The modified soybeans still need approval from biotech regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture before planting can begin, said Ben Kampelman, a Monsanto spokesman, in an interview. Sales should begin early in the next decade, he said.
Researchers at St. Louis-based Monsanto created the new soybean
strain by inserting genes from a fungus and another plant. Soybeans naturally
create an omega-3 fatty acid called
In the study, healthy volunteers in
Study Findings
At 12 weeks, the new oil boosted EPA levels with about 18 percent of the efficiency of pure EPA, according to the research.
Subjects taking the modified soybean oil were given more than those in the fish-derived EPA group. The former took 15 grams of the new soybean oil and 1 gram of regular soybean oil in the form of gel caps a day, while those in the EPA group were given one gram of EPA in gel caps and 15 grams of regular soybean oil daily. The group given unaltered soybean oil had 15 grams of oil and 1 gram in gel caps a day.
EPA levels rose 18 percent in the group taking the new soybean oil, compared with 20 percent in the pure-EPA group, according to the report. The regular soybean oil didn’t raise cellular EPA levels at all, the results showed.
More tests are needed to ensure the oil has the same effect once put into foods, Harris said.
As the oil gets incorporated into foods, “the background levels of omega-3 in the population will rise,” Harris said. The oil will take pressure off fish populations and be free from contaminants such as mercury and dioxins that can be found in fish.
“It’s virtually an inexhaustible source if it works out,” Harris said.
Monsanto has worked since 2007 with St. Louis-based Solae
Co., owned 72 percent by DuPont Co. of Wilmington,
Food summit yields ‘crumbs’ on hunger’s plate
(AP
via Yahoo! News)
The three-day summit at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome ended with little new headway in efforts for a new strategy to help farmers in poor countries produce enough to feed their people.
The summit was quickly labeled a failure at the outset Monday when delegates from 192 nations rejected U.N. appeals to commit themselves to $44 billion annually in agricultural development aid.
As the summit closed, the international aid agency Oxfam denounced the gathering as a "lackluster" effort that wound up offering what it called "crumbs" for the world's hungry, estimated at one of every six people on Earth.
Jacques Diouf, the director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said in his closing speech that countries had taken "important steps" by pledging in the final summit declaration to increase aid to agriculture.
But, "alas, I note that this declaration does not contain any quantified objectives, nor any precise deadline," said Diouf shortly before a final news conference. The United Nations had hoped the summit would commit to eradicating hunger by 2025.
Oxfam joined a loud chorus of critics who questioned the value of the summit's outcome.
"A single meeting can't solve world hunger, but we certainly expected far more than this," said Oxfam spokesman Gawain Kripke.
Apart from Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who chaired the opening session, no other Group of Eight leaders attended.
"The near total absence of rich country leaders sent a poor message from the beginning. The summit offered few solid accomplishments," said Kripke.
Although the summit endorsed a strategy shift to put the emphasis on making developing countries self-sufficient in agriculture, factors such as wars, droughts and flooding, as well as the global financial crisis, still mean emergency food aid is needed.
On the summit sidelines Wednesday, U.N. officials said such factors have made the Horn of Africa one of the world's most critical hunger areas, with some 23 million people short of food.
The World Food Program will need $1 billion to provide food
aid in the next six months in the region that includes
Water on the moon: Can veggies be far behind?
(Los Angeles Times) – Scientists have found "significant" amounts of water in a crater at the moon's south pole, a major discovery that will dramatically revise the characterization of the moon as a dead world and likely make it a more attractive destination for future human space missions.
"The moon is alive," declared Anthony Colaprete, the chief scientist for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission.
That mission used a rocket Oct. 9 to punch a hole about 100 feet across in the moon's surface, then measured about 25 gallons of water in the form of vapor and ice. While that's not even enough to swim in, it could indicate sufficient water in permanently shaded craters at the poles for future astronauts to live off the land.
NASA's plans, currently under review by the Obama administration, call for a return to the moon at the end of the next decade, and construction of a lunar base in which astronauts could live and work for months at a time.
The presence of large quantities of water would make that plan more practical, since water could be used for drinking, breathing and even making rocket fuel.
A resource-rich moon could also serve as the perfect low-gravity launchpad for missions that would carry astronauts and their families elsewhere in the solar system, fulfilling the dreams of generations of science-fiction writers and visionaries.
"This is painting a surprising new picture of the moon. This is not your father's moon," said Greg Delory, a space scientist at UC Berkeley.
After the Apollo missions of the 1960s and '70s, the moon was regarded as a dead, forbidding place with little to offer future explorers.
"What's really exciting is we've only hit one
spot," said Peter Schultz, a geology professor at
The $79-million lunar crater mission was launched in June to try to uncover the source of large quantities of hydrogen that had been measured in lunar craters at the poles. If there was water on the moon, scientists reasoned, it would be in these shadowed craters, which haven't seen sunlight in billions of years.
The satellite targeted the Cabeus crater at the south pole, first steering its companion Centaur rocket into the surface.
Then the satellite flew through the cloud of debris and dust kicked up by Centaur, using its near-infrared and visible light spectrometers, along with other instruments, to read the contents of the debris cloud. Spectrometers identify compounds by analyzing the light they emit or absorb.
No cloud showed up at first, causing some scientists to worry that the Centaur had hit rock. But members of the scientific team became excited when they started looking at the data transmitted back to Earth just before the satellite crashed as planned a short distance from Centaur.
The "eureka" moment came in recent weeks when the
team realized that a strong signature for water had been picked up by more than
one instrument. "It's a pretty tight fit for water vapor and ice," Colaprete said in a briefing at
This is not the first discovery of water on the moon.
Several weeks ago,
But those amounts were so insignificant that it is unlikely the water would be useful to future colonists.
This latest discovery, however, is a potentially significant source of water, the scientists said.
It's unlikely the water, at least at this site, is in the form of an ice sheet, Colaprete said. It's more likely to be mixed in with the soil.
The question now is, where did the water come from? Possible sources include comets and asteroids, which are considered likely sources of the water on Earth.
It's also possible the hydrogen was delivered by solar wind to the lunar surface, where it was converted to water. In shadowed craters, the water could be stored as ice for billions of years.
Polar craters on the moon are some of the coldest places in the solar system, dipping below minus-360 degrees.
The scientists hinted that other surprises may be coming in the next few months. "The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich," Colaprete said.
This new picture of a dynamic moon comes as the Obama administration is reconsidering the future of the human space flight program. The Vision for Space Exploration announced by the Bush administration in 2004 called for a return to the moon by 2020 and the eventual colonization of Mars.
But the Augustine Commission, appointed by Obama to review those plans, reported just weeks ago that NASA will not get back to the moon anytime soon unless it gets a lot more money, at least $3 billion a year.
The commission also questioned whether the moon is a worthy goal, citing the "been there, done that" factor.
These new discoveries could be game changers, since they raise the possibility that a colony on the moon could be virtually self-sustaining.
Obama has given no indication yet as to what he intends to do.
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