Herbicide tolerant GM soya is insecticidal too

June 2022

Glyphosate-tolerant GM crops aren't something that usually bring insecticides to mind.  Indeed, historically, US soyabeans were only sporadically challenged by insect pests.  Things changed around 2000 with the arrival of the soybean aphid which can only be controlled by foliar spraying.  Hot on the heels of this pest invasion came dramatic increases in bean leaf beetle which prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue an emergency exemption for neonicotinoid insecticidal seed treatments. 

Nasty GM surprises

March 2020

Farmers' knowledge about the cycles of nature, their land, their crops and livestock, their soil, and all the life that shares their estates seem to have been swept aside by reductionist 'solutions' sold to them by corporations with $-lined technological tunnel vision.

Simple, GM 'solutions' have a habit of leading to complex outcomes and nasty surprises.

Fluttering into oblivion

March 2017

In 1995, the population of America's iconic and wonderfully colourful Monarch butterflies reached an all-time high. The following year, GM crops hit US fields with monocultures of GM 'Roundup Ready' plants doused with glyphosate herbicide and monocultures of GM insecticidal plants. These commodities mushroomed within a few years to cover a great deal of the 400 million or so acres of America's cropland.

Apart from the brief rally in the 2010-2011 season, Monarch numbers have declined steadily ever since that peak. Even optimistic estimates put the total loss at more than 80%, and the most recent tally recorded a further drop of 27% from last year's count.

GM-fed butterflies don't fly

July 2016

Camelina: Photo Creative Commons

The UK government continues to promote GM crops as a rising star of industry. This isn't because it's enthralled by the herbicide-accumulating or insecticide-generating GM animal feed crops with which Big Biotech has filled overseas fields.

Westminster has its eye on high-value 'nutritionally-enhanced' GM offerings.