April 18, 2000 / The Associated Press / ROXANA HEGEMAN
WICHITA, Kan. -- Under new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations
imposed this spring, farmers can, according to this story, only use 80
percent of their corn acreage to plant the Bt variety of biotech corn, which
contains a bacteria gene that makes it toxic to pests.
The remaining 20 percent must be a non-Bt variety -- so that enough of the
corn borers can survive and reproduce.
The story says that if the thought of a refuge for corn borers is not
strange enough, consider this: the new regulations were actually suggested
to the EPA by farmers themselves.
Randy Higgins, state entomologist with Kansas State Research and Extension
was cited as saying the thinking is that enough of the corn borers
susceptible to the Bt corn must survive so they can mate with any resistant
moths which emerge from the biotech cornfields, adding, "This strategy,
coupled with other recommendations the EPA has made, are designed to
maintain the durability of Bt corn as a remarkably effective pest control
tool for many years."
That is especially important in south-central and southwest Kansas -- where
corn fields are plagued by heavy concentrations of both European and
southwestern corn borers.
Larry Buschman, research entomologist at the Kansas State Research and
Extension Center in Garden City, was cited as saying that farmers pay a
technology premium of about $10 per acre to plant the Bt-modified seed --
which is cheaper than any insecticide applicatio and that the Bt fields not
only produce bigger yields but also higher quality corn, adding, "The
economic advantage of planting Bt corn is very substantial, when you see
$150 for every $10 investment."
Jere White, executive director of Kansas Corn Growers Association, was cited
as saying the practice of planting refuge acres for corn borers when using
Bt seed has been an industry practice for at least a couple of years,
adding, "That was the practice that had been encouraged by growers and
industry, prior to being a formally adopted regulation by EPA, so it really
was no change to any growers."
White was further cited as saying that in the wake of the controversy over
altered foods, a group of northwest Kansas farmers have begun growing and
supplying corn specifically for markets that sell crops free from genetic
modifications.
(posted without permission)
