Pesticide Potpourri

• Mexico is close to finalizing rules governing experimental planting of genetically modified corn strains.  The government is determined to boost output in the next few years to offset rising prices driven by U.S. demand for corn-based ethanol fuel.  Mexico's biggest grain farmers have long lobbied to lift a 1998 ban on GM corn, arguing it would help lift lagging crop yields.  Mexico last year passed a biosecurity law designed to permit GM cultivation in certain regions under controlled conditions to be set in the regulatory document.  The rules would likely prohibit farmers in regions that contain the oldest strains of corn from planting GM material.  (Reuters, 7/17/07). 
•  The London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) was cited as saying that the government of Cusco, a region in the Peruvian Andes, is scheduled to ban all genetically modified varieties of potato.  The area was the birthplace of many varieties of spud, and is still home to thousands of kinds of potato, from the notoriously hard to peel q'achun waq'achi to the dark grey amakjaya. The move was supported by a Peruvian non-profit organization called Association ANDES, along with the IIED.  The motivation is both to ensure that genes from GM potatoes do not infiltrate the native potatoes, and to support efforts to market the area as a source of diverse, authentic, organic potato varieties.  Alejandro Argumedo, associate director of Association ANDES, cited emotional and economic reasons, as well as cautiousness, for the decision, adding, “This is a potato land.  All potatoes have meaning.  Potatoes are believed to have spirit.  There is great concern of contamination at the centers of origin.”  The ban will also keep cheaper GM potatoes from competing with the more expensive local varieties.  (Nature, 7/18/07). 

•  A deputy director of the Taiwanese food safety department was cited as saying that Taiwan has rejected 9,000 tons of U.S. wheat after elevated residues from malathion were found in a recent shipment.  According to the U.S. Wheat Associates (USWA), Taiwan is the seventh-largest importer of U.S. wheat, with annual imports of an averaged of about 1 million tons a year.  The Taiwanese official declined to comment on reports of possible adverse reaction among suppliers caused by the rejection of the consignment as speculated in Taiwanese media.  He said that the impact on wheat supply would be “minimal” and that he expected shipments of U.S. wheat to continue.  The reports suggested that U.S. shippers would balk at sending wheat consignments to Taiwan, which is virtually reliant on imports to meet its milling needs, for fear of its cargo being rejected.  Codex Alimentarius, the international standards-setting body for pesticide residues, last year adopted new, sharply reduced tolerances for malathion residues on wheat and wheat flour.  The new standards permit 0.5 ppm and 0.2 ppm, respectively, down from the previous tolerances of 8.0 ppm and 2.0 ppm, said USWA.  (Domain-B, 7/16/07). 

•  China will shift its dependence from corn to sorghum, cassava and sweet potato plants to make biofuel in the next five years.  Part of the government's efforts to develop biofuel without harming general food supply and security, the shift will ensure a healthy supply of corn both as food and fodder.  Cassava and sweet potato both are high-yield plants, and though edible, they are not used as staple food.  So their use as raw material, as opposed to that of corn, won't create any artificial shortage of food products.  An official of the National Development and Reform Commission's industry department, was cited as telling China Daily that the conversion of the four major ethanol production centers, which have a combined output of 1 million tons, will neither be too complicated nor costly.  The four plants, along with the newly approved ones, will use sorghum, cassava and sweet potato that scientists have recommended as corn substitutes.  The facility in Hengshui in Hebei Province is expected to yield 300,000 tons of biofuel, mainly from sweet potato annually.  (China Daily, 7/18/07). 

•  Robb Fraley, chief technology officer at Monsanto, was quoted as saying, “It really doesn't matter whether you're a cotton farmer in Alabama or a dry land corn farmer in South Dakota.  Everybody is interested in drought tolerance because just about every geography every three or four years faces some type of drought or water stress.”  Monsanto spends more than $2 million a day on breeding and genetic research to develop drought-tolerant plants, improve the quality of plants, or make crops less susceptible to weeds and insects.  Company officials were cited as saying that several hundred people at the St. Louis-based company work on drought-tolerance alone.  Monsanto has done early testing on genetically engineered corn and cotton and some varieties of corn tested have shown 10 to 15 percent higher yields compared to standard corn exposed to the same levels of water.  Mark Lawson, corn yield and stress lead for the company, was cited as saying he hopes the company will have a product to offer farmers soon after 2010.  Fred Perlak, director of cotton technology for Monsanto, was cited as saying that a drought-tolerant cottonseed may be available between 2016 and 2018 or so, and that company researchers are aiming to develop cotton plants that will produce as much cotton as traditional plants but with 20 percent less water.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Research Service in Tifton, GA, also is working to develop drought-tolerant peanuts through traditional breeding.  Corley Holbrook, research geneticist at that center, was cited as saying the goal is to develop a plant that can yield 20 percent more peanuts than conventional varieties during a drought, adding, “We're a few years away from something a farmer could actually grow.”  (The Birmingham News, 7/24/07). 

•  Biofuel use in the EU went up 78 percent from 2005 to 2006 - from 3m to 5.4 m tons.  Germany is by far the EU’s biggest biofuel consumer with a total consumption of 3,343,700 tons in 2006.  Germany is far ahead of runners-up France (682,000 tons) and Austria (275,200 tons).  This is due to “the explosion of vegetable oil consumption in Germany, which considers this product as a fully-fledged fuel.”  The majority of the biofuel boom is made up of biodiesels which are much more prevalent than ethanol, according to the figures.  (theparliment.com, 7/24/07). 

•  A coalition of activist groups want Governor Eliot Spitzer to issue an executive order that would end the use of pesticides on land owned by the state.  Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Research Group, was quoted as saying, “We should not be exposing state workers and the public to hazardous and unnecessary chemicals that can cause a range of serious health problems, from asthma attacks to birth defects and cancer, as well as contaminate our air and drinking water.  It's not rocket science; there are towns and counties and cities across the state doing just this on their own property.”  According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, more than 2.7 million gallons of pesticides were used by pest-control companies in NY in 2004 which doesn't include use by farmers and homeowners.  There is no record of how much was sprayed on state property, including public parks, schools and government buildings.  A report released by Beyond Pesticides found that 10 states have laws that restrict the use of the chemicals on municipal property, and those plans are “limited and mostly inadequate.”  (Star Gazette, 7/28/07). 

•  Maine is finally joining the rest of the country in allowing farmers to grow genetically altered corn.  The Board of Pesticides Control was cited as voting late July to let farmers grow the crop that's resistant to insects.  It'll be used only for animal feed as it is in other states, and the seed companies will have to provide sales data to the state.  Board member Richard Stevenson was quoted as saying, “If we don't take advantage of this technology, these farmers may not be here in five or 10 years down the road.”  Critics urged the board not to cave to pressure for Maine to follow the rest of the nation in adopting the use of Bacillus thuringiensis, or B.t. corn.  They said the modified corn poses a potential threat to wildlife and plants, as well as people.  (The Boston Globe, 7/30/07). 

•  Local health officials were cited as saying that one farmer was killed and 154 others were poisoned in early August by endosulfan used to protect coffee and banana crops in the central western Quindio province of Colombia.  Jose Arias, Health Sector Institute representative of that area, was cited as saying local farmers continue using endosulfan even though this pesticide has been banned since 2001, adding, “It is possible that the farmers are not following the correct instructions.”  According to him, the farmers have not been using masks and other protective equipment while using the lethal pesticide.  Quindio, with 12 municipalities, is one of Colombia's main coffee-producing and exporting regions.  (Xinhua News Agency, 8/3/07).