EPA to hold workshops on Bt corn insect resistance

Reuters (undated)

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it would hold a series of workshops in Washington to discuss insect resistance to genetically-engineered Bt corn crops.

The first workshop was scheduled for June 4-5 and will focus on pest simulation models. A second workshop on July 26-27 will study insect resistance monitoring.

Dates for the third and fourth workshops will be announced in the future, the EPA said in a Federal Register notice.

Information collected during the meetings will be used by the EPA to design insect resistance management strategies for Bt corn, a variety engineered to include the bacillus thuringiensis bacterium, which occurs naturally in the soil and acts as a pesticide.

The agency said it would limit the workshops to small groups of about 15 people, and would issue a report after all four have been completed.

The EPA, which regulates plants altered to produce their own pesticides, is also considering whether to renew the registration of Bt corn, cotton and potato varieties that were approved six years ago. The registrations are set to expire in September.

More information about the EPA's work on insect resistance has been posted on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides .