Irresponsible farmers allow rootworm to gain resistance against Bt corn - 65% of U.S. supply.

Irresponsible drivers cause thousands of deaths each year because they don't correctly maintain their vehicle.


There's always someone to blame for everything.

 

Excessive use of antibiotics breeds resistant bacteria. Excessive use of pesticides breeds resistant pests. In this case, the pesticide is built into the plant, meaning that it's always there, whether needed or not. Normally, crops are sprayed only when a pest is present. And while BT itself is harmless to birds and mammals, building it into the plant, rather than spraying only as needed, will accelerate the development of resistant pests. This is unfortunate, because it will necessitate the use of more noxious chemicals, when the BT no longer kills the worms.

Farmers, however, are in a bind, as they are pressed on three sides: They have no bargaining power over the cost of their inputs (seeds, fuel, chemicals) or their revenue (prices of their crops) and the bank is always ready to foreclose if they don't pay the mortgage. And if they don't follow "accepted farming practices" (i.e. full-on chemical farming) the bank is far less likely to grant them a bit of leeway in a bad year. And where corporate farming exists, shareholders demand profits and don't care about such considerations as sustainability.

 

I know as much about agriculture as General Motors does about making non-crappy cars (which is to say, not much at all), but even I know you rotate your crops, nor do you plant just one single variety for crop in a very large area for this very reason (among others). See: Irish Potato Famine.

 

"Nine-tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense, not founded on observation and wholly unsupported by facts. This museum is full of proofs of the utter falsity of their views. In all this great museum, there is not a particle of evidence of the transmutation of species." Dr. Etheridge, Paleontologist of the British Museum

 

The US government has policies to cause high demand for corn. These include policies like the ethanol mandate and sugar tariff, to encouraging factory farms that require corn for feed grain. The result is a high percentage of land devoted to corn farming, and along with iowa being the first place in a presidential race, a great deal of political pull to encourage corn.

BT is an narrow spectrum natural insecticide that has been added by genetically modified crops such as bt corn, bt cotton, bt potatoes or sprayed on the plants. Simple crop rotation, with bt crops or sprayed on bt insecticide will still risk resistance. For this reason parts of the field should be planted with non-bt crops each year. It is narrow spectrum, so it can be used with other pesticides/insecticides and should be safer than broad spectrum pesticides.

One big problem is the percentage of land used by corn, and farmers not following the rules when it comes to bt. They need to have years with no bt crops or spray, or resistance will spread. With the demand for corn farmers will continue to plant corn every year, but they can use other insecticides. These are more expensive which is the reason for the cheating.

 

I think we still need to wait many years to see if the gmo corn, turned into pork and beef in factory farms, is causing any harm. BT is not very effective when sprayed, so much higher levels or more dangerous chemicals need to be sprayed. Resistance is occurring because farmers are cheating and not following the rules. The epa wants monsanto to monitor use better, and cut off farmers from seeds if they violate the rules, but I'm sure cheating will still occur.

Farmers need to follow the rules and not plant bt crops every year and over the entire land. Agricultural practices are creating these resistant bugs.

The bank and seed companies are not telling farmers to violate the rules. They do make more money by following unsafe practices, and this is a bad economy. Part of the problem is education, part economics, and ofcourse there is the politics of big corn and big agg.

There is definitely the profit motive, but using the same insecticide year after year is not accepted best farming practices. A large percentage of the land is corporately controlled farming, and these as well as individuals need heavy fines if they are creating resistant bugs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ified-corn/2011/12/28/gIQAavZoMP_story_1.html

 

+1

Also found in SimFarm.

 

Monoculture farming is common due to market forces (and government policies) which in some climates make one crop significantly more profitable than any other. It's short-sighted, but when greed and economic necessity both push in the same direction, lots of people will choose that direction.

No, but they are telling farmers to pay their mortgage or lose their farm. And farmers are notoriously individualistic, and likely to rebel against rules they think cut into their profits. And most farmers see chemicals as necessary for profitability. A few use sustainable methods, but the great majority don't believe they can farm without chemicals, and in places like Iowa, many farmers don't believe they can make a profit using such sustainable methods as crop rotation. (Though always, some farmers do.)

 

I commented because your post had a number of misconceptions, and this one still does. These farmers are not forced by the bank to not be organic, they were not organic to begin with. BT crops reduce the amount of chemicals they spread and reduce crop losses. That is why they have become so popular. This means lower costs and higher yields. Being individualistic is no excuse at all to use unsafe methods that produce resistant bugs. Doing these practices hurt all farmers as costs will go up and and yields down to fight these pests. The pests thrive on numerous types of plants, so rotation does not reduce them. Part of the field needs to be planted with non-bt seed, and there needs to be years where the entire field has non-bt. The corn market is highly profitable, and demand for corn for ethanol or feed grain has no incentives to go organic. Even if the farmers are growing corn season after season, they need to control how they use bt. No excuse for these cheaters. Would you make the same excuse for an oil company that say cut corners drilling an offshore well?

 

Having been in the farming business for the past 51 years, it never ceases to amaze me when so many expound on things they no so little about, including the person who wrote the article everyone thinks is the gospel truth.

 

Touché

 

It's always easy to put the blame on farmers for corporate practices. This is little different than the standard lacing of feed with penicillin and other antibiotics. (Adding these resulted in fatter cattle.) We know the result of doing that.

One other aspect in this discussion is putting all farmers in the same bucket. There are those that only think about next year and those that think decades ahead.

 

I agree with you. I'm just saying that farmers are under a lot of pressure, from all sides. Most farms are small businesses, whose suppliers and customers are much larger businesses, and many have large debt.

I lived in rural North Dakota for many years. My friends and neighbors were farmers and I worked as a farm hand. I don't pretend to know how to run a farm, but I sure know what it sounds like when farmers get together and talk about their concerns.

I am not justifying bad farming practices. I'm just saying that decisions are complicated for the farmer. I'm a strong believer in sustainable agriculture, as well as in sustainable energy. None of my farming neighbors agreed with me.

 

If we are getting things wrong, please let us know what. I was only expounding on the over use of the same insecticide in the evolution of resistant strains. This is something I do know about.

I was not trying to insult farmers in general, only the farmers that are doing bad practices. I understand that there is pressure to not rotate crops because one crop is much more profitable. This definitely can be done in a responsible way. My problem is with that minority of farmers that plant bt crops products year after year, or on their entire farms.