Argentina Reaps GM `Disaster'

The Sunday Times (UK) 18apr04

ARGENTINA, which pioneered GM farming, has become a stark warning of the disaster that can result, scientists have claimed.

It has suffered an environmental crisis of "superweeds" overrunning the countryside and farmers reporting health problems, experts warn.

Since 1997 genetically modified soya bean has been planted over almost half the country's arable land.

A study, detailed in the respected journal New Scientist, has found that over-use of weedkillers is rendering the soil "inert" and directly affecting human health.

Farming families living near Argentina's GM fields complain of rashes, streaming eyes and other symptoms. Some have seen their livestock die or give birth to deformed young.

This week British campaigners warned that Argentina's crisis highlighted the possible scenario awaiting the UK if the Government pushed ahead with plans for GM cultivation.

Argentina became one of the first countries to authorise GM crops, when Monsanto's Ready Roundup strain of soya was introduced.

Farmers embraced the GM strain, which is designed to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate.

They were lured by the promise of increased productivity and decreased herbicide use, two of the main "selling points" claimed by GM enthusiasts.

New Scientist reports the GM soya growers actually found themselves using twice as much herbicide as conventional soya farmers, largely because of herbicide-tolerant "superweeds" that had sprung up.

They were created when GM crops "swapped" their resistant genes with weeds, a process shown to occur in a number of studies.

Because so much herbicide was being used, normal bacteria found in fertile soil were declining and the soil itself was becoming inert, research showed.

 Colin Merritt, biotechnology manager for Monsanto, which markets Roundup Ready soya, said it had been an "exemplary success" in South America, both environmentally and economically.

He said: "We're shocked that New Scientist should publish such a highly biased and inaccurate article, which only quoted from two well-known anti-GM activists, and ignored the wealth of independent scientific evidence to the contrary.

"If the problems they claimed were true in the real world, why would Roundup still be used by millions of farmers every year after 30 years of safe and effective use?"

source: http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,9306514%255E950,00.html 21apr04