We've found genetic shortcuts to better crops, but there's a risk

By Tom Beal, Arizona Daily Star

Development of a better breed of cotton was a long, slow process for scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Arizona, as detailed in today's "100 Days of Science" feature about Pima cotton in the Arizona Daily Star.

More recent development of a bug-resistant cotton was speeded by the ability to find and modify the genetic makeup of plants, in this case to insert a naturally-occuring pesticide into the strain of upland cotton now most commonly grown in Arizona.

It led to the eradication of the pink bollworm in Arizona, but it took more than genetic manipulation to do that.

I wrote about the campaign in November 2010:

The (pink bollworm) moth was the target of a novel approach to pest eradication, which paired seed that had been genetically altered to produce a natural toxin called Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, with the release of sterile moths to guard against growth of an insect population resistant to the engineered seed.

That four-year assault reduced the pink bollworm population to essentially zero, says a research paper published this month in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

It's good news for farmers and beneficial to society at large, said University of Arizona entomologist Bruce Tabashnik. Growers have been able to virtually eliminate pesticide spraying on cotton crops in Arizona, he said.

The efficacy of Bt seed is nothing new, said Tabashnik, an author of the paper.

Tabashnik also sounded a note of caution.

Worldwide, nearly 500 million acres are planted in Bt cotton and corn. It has proven effective in warding off pests, but some of Tabashnik's studies have raised concerns about the development of resistance by the insects it is supposed to kill.

No pesticide is 100 percent effective, and resistant insects can mate with each other to create a pest population that isn't killed by the Bt toxins.

More recently, Tabashnik and other scientists have raised concerns about Bt corn, citing reports that the Western corn rootworm has developed resistance to Bt.

The Associated Press reported in January:

If rootworms do become resistant to Bt corn, it "could become the most economically damaging example of insect resistance to a genetically modified crop in the U.S.," said Bruce Tabashnik, an entomologist at the University of Arizona. "It's a pest of great economic significance - a billion-dollar pest."

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Is Organic Farming Better For The Environment ?

All countries around the world are dependent on agriculture to help them cater to their ever growing population. The agricultural sector gives employment to almost half of the world's population. Before the advent of technology, the only way that food was grown was through organic farming.

However, when technology started developing during the Second World War, it also had a dramatic effect on the agricultural sector. Conventional farming methods make use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, mechanization and also genetic engineering all in the name of producing maximum yields. Also, many farmers are just growing a single crop instead of using crop rotation, and this causes soil erosion and strips the soil of its nutrients.

However, organic farming is beneficial not just for people who eat the produce, but also for the environment. Organic farming does not use chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to increase yield. Neither does it use genetic engineering. Instead, organic farming protects its crop by using natural methods of pest control, it uses crop rotation to prevent growth of weeds, it uses mulches to retain soil moisture and many more environmentally-friendly practices.

By using organic farming, soil erosion is reduced and the topsoil is retained. Crop rotation prevents the stripping of nutrients from the soil, and the fact chemicals are not used as fertilizers or pesticides, ensures that the produce is non-toxic and chemical-free. Above all, none of the chemicals finds their way into the ground water or water bodies thereby polluting the water sources. Also, organic farming helps to reduce carbon emissions and this helps to protect the changing global climate.

All these advantages of organic farming clearly show that organic farming does help the environment.

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