Associated Press
AMES, Iowa - A recent Iowa State University study shows that farmers in the Midwest who planted Bt corn from 1996 to 1998 reduced their insecticide use each year.
Bt corn is genetically engineered to produce a protein that is toxic to some insects, including the European corn borer. The insects die after feeding on Bt corn leaves and stalks.
Researchers found that 26 percent of the farmers who planted Bt corn in 1998 decreased their insecticide use. That's compared to the 19 percent of Bt-corn farmers in 1997 who decreased their insecticide use, and 13 percent of Bt-corn farmers who decreased their pesticide use in 1996. About half of the Bt-corn farmers surveyed said they don't use insecticides.
"These are farmers who are either greatly cutting back their insecticide use or eliminating it all together," said Marlin Rice, an Iowa State entomology professor who led the research team. "The number of farmers reducing their insecticide use continues to rise dramatically each year, which I think the general consumer population would see as a favorable thing."
Of the 75 million acres that were planted with corn in the Midwest in 1998, 22 million acres were Bt corn, Rice said. Taking the survey results - that 26 percent of the farmers planting Bt corn reduced their pesticide use - Rice said the research showed that about 6 million more acres of land had less insecticide or no insecticide applied in 1998.
Rice said the survey results could help establish an alternative view to genetically modified crops and the corn hybrid, which has been cited as having potentially detrimental effects on monarch butterflies.
"I believe it's important to put some balance into this argument - there are some environmental benefits being gained from this technology," he said. "It's not all negative about genetic engineering - this is on the positive side."
The researchers surveyed farmers who planted Bt corn in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois and Pennsylvania - just over 2,000 farmers in 1996, 3,334 farmers in 1997 and 1,967 farmers in 1998, Rice said.
Those were the first three growing seasons when Bt corn was commercially available, he said.
The survey also found that 82 percent of the farmers said their primary reason for planting a Bt corn hybrid was to prevent yield loss from the European corn borer, while 27 percent wanted to eliminate the need for insecticide to control the pest.
