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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Bt Corn

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  • From: "Wilmer, Kristen" <kristen.wilmer AT uconn.edu>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Bt Corn
  • Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:38:08 -0500

Hi folks,

For anyone who is interested, there is a good, brief summary of the
studies that have been conducted on Bt corn and monarch butterflies at
the following website:

http://www.geo-pie.cornell.edu/issues/monarchs.html

This website is in my opinion a pretty objective source of information
about the topic (it doesn't present any analysis, just information from
the studies). It's hosted by Cornell, the institution where the
research team was based that originally published the Nature article
suggesting that Bt corn harmed monarchs, and goes into some detail about
the research findings and how the later studies were organized and
funded (there was some industry funding as well as public funding). I
agree that it's important to be skeptical of any studies that are funded
by people with interests in particular research results, but I think
it's also important to take this on a case by case basis and judge
studies on the full mix of funds that contribute to them, the mix of
scientists involved, and the quality of methods and peer review. The
USDA is a very diverse organization with many different programs and
scientists (as is Cornell, to a somewhat lesser extent) so I have
trouble thinking of it as a single entity with clear motives in any one
direction. The motives of industry are certainly clearer, and any study
with industry funding introduces some doubt, but at the same time public
funding is limited and industry is under pressure to take responsibility
for funding studies to assess the risk of GM products.

For what it's worth, my own subjective judgment from reading these
studies is that it looks like the varieties of Bt corn that are
currently grown are unlikely to have a negative impact on monarch
butterflies in the field, and there is evidence that the impact of Bt
corn on beneficials may be less than that of spraying Bt or other
insecticides. That still leaves uncertainty about these and other
impacts, and I'm not inclined to plant Bt corn myself for various
reasons, but in this case I don't think the evidence points to clear
environmental costs. I think the jury's still out on many of the
overall costs/benefits of Bt corn (as with many other farming
practices).

Kristen
Northeast CT

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