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| Farmers Were Assured Of Greater Yields If They Grew Genetically Engineered Crops In 1996 Monsanto introduced commercially a genetically engineered cotton with in-seed insect-protection against the cotton bollworm. In 1997 Monsanto introduced commercially a genetically modified corn which had in-built protection from the European corn borer. Also, that year, a new transgenic cotton variety which had both bollworm resistance and glyphosate tolerant properties. Farmers were promised higher yields and lower costs and thus more profit if they grew these transgenic plants. Have the biotech companies been able to deliver on these assurances. India. According to Andrew Malone writing in the Daily Mail, it is correct what Prince Charles said about thousands of farmers in the Maharashtra state, India, committing suicide after running up large debts due to the crop failure of genetically engineered pest proof varieties of Bt cotton. The farmers were promised that the genetically engineered Bt cotton would not need pesticides, would be free of disease and insect pests. Instead their cotton was devastated by the parasite pink bollworm. This was because the Bt cotton is resistant to green bollworm but not pink bollworm. Though the yields were lower some forty percent of farmers did manage to make a small profit, as compared to the sixty percent of farmers who made a loss, from growing the cotton. But because the quality of the cotton is poor, the fibres are shorter, farmers are paid a reduced amount per kilo. So farmers who grow cotton have reduced yields and get reduced returns on the Bt cotton they do produce. Why would any farmer aspire to grow genetically modified Bt cotton. To make matters worse the seeds sold to the farmers are "terminator" seeds. This means that the cotton crop only beget infertile seeds. So even if the farmer does manage to gain even a low yield of Bt cotton he can't make use of these seeds to plant next years crop but has to purchase new seeds every year and these transgenic seeds are very expensive. South Africa. Farmers in three provinces -- North West, Free State and Mpumalanga, in South Africa -- have had up to eighty percent crop failure with three varieties of genetically engineered corn. Monsanto blamed the crop failures on a mistake in the laboratory, made during the seed fabrication process. Opponents of genetically engineered foodstuffs, however, say that the science behind genetic modification is at fault. Super-weeds. Another disadvantage of growing transgenic crops that are made to be tolerant of glyphosate is that over time when crops are sprayed with the herbicide, the weeds also become resistant to the herbicide. According to The International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds there are now nine weed species, in different areas within the United States, that are resistant to the glyphosate weed killer. When you consider that glyphosate is one of the most harmful and most popular of all herbicides then once a weed species becomes tolerant to it, it may be hard to find a herbicide that will kill the weeds but leave the food crop standing. When farmers are finding their arable land infested with these super-weeds they are been advised to increase the amount of glyphosate they normally use on the food crop and if this does not fix the problem they are advised to add a selection of different herbicides. So farmers end up by spraying the food crops with many diverse types of weed killers including considerable amounts of glyphosate. Using more weed killers means more costs and lower profits. Georgia, United States. The state of Georgia is being invaded, not by Triffids, but by pigweed (Palmer Amaranth). Over one-hundred thousand acres of arable land in Georgia is acutely infested with this glyphosate tolerant superweed says weed technical expert Stanley Culpepper from the University of Georgia. Pigweed is a fast-growing, drought-resistant, incredibly prolific weed that smothers the cotton plants starving them of sunlight, nutrients and water. The infestation has got so bad that some farmers are weeding their Bt cotton plants by hand. Other farmers are giving up and abandoning their acreage to the weeds. Long Term Trends. The evidence seems to suggest that growing genetically modified crops will eventually lead to lower yields and greater costs, which means lower profits. When Shopping For Good Quality Farm Tractor Tires, Should You Hunt For Used Or New? The tractor has made the life of every farmer easy and farmer's work much lighter and easier. 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The Best Strategy To Find Vehicles For Sale: Some Effective Tips If you want to stay away from the time-consuming tasks and still have easy access to a variety of auctions which offer a wide array of cheap vehicles for sale, maybe you should think about getting involved in online auctions. MLM Is Absolutely Not A Get Wealthy Overnight Approach The explosion of information that is everywhere on the net has made business go a lot easier and will continue to get better with the more technology that is introduced. How Business Enterprise Credit Cards Will Assist You To Satisfy Your Small Business Demands Often times it is the case that small business credit cards have smaller credit lines than some of the other business cards available. Mammarian Cancer Treatments - New Facts About Mammarian Cancer Treatments Are Coming To Light Constantly Breast cancer treatments are very challenging for the body to endure. Breast cancer treatments are changing all of the time, and there are many factors that impact survival. The Miata - One Of The Many Well-Liked Sports Cars Being Sold Today Is The Mazda Miata The Miata is one if the top little cars that Mazda makes and that people around the world love. After more than 20 years of production, the Miata is still going strong. |
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