Rootworm Protected Corn Registered with Controversy
On February 25, the EPA approved Monsanto's new biotech corn, YieldGard® Rootworm Corn, for planting in 2003. Asst. Administrator Steve
Johnson said the Agency put the plant- incorporated protectant through a multiyear science-based review process to “ensure that it is safe for human health and the environment." The USDA has estimated that the devastating pest costs U.S. corn growers about $1 billion annually. In order to reduce potential insect resistance, Monsanto must ensure that a 20 percent "refuge" exists. The company also is required to conduct added research on resistance management.
However, scientists who were consulted before the February decision say that the EPA ignored their advice and is doing too little to ensure that insects don't develop resistance to the insecticide produced by the plant. Last October, a scientific review board recommended that the strain should only be grown if farmers plant an equal area of non-transgenic corn next to it. Such a stipulation would have undermined the commercial viability of the strain, however, and the EPA rejected it, saying that a 20 percent "refuge" of non-transgenic corn will suffice. The controversy surrounds the fact that YieldGard® produces much less toxin than existing Bt crops - killing only about half of the rootworm population. With such a low mortality rate, resistance is certain to arise, the panel said - the only question is when. Eleven members of the scientific review board that looked at Monsanto's application urged the EPA to require a refuge size of at least 50 percent of the total area planted with corn. In the end, the EPA sided with three dissenting review board members, and sanctioned the 20 percent refuge size that Monsanto had requested. (CropLife America Spotlight, 2/28/03 & AgNet, 3/6/03).
