NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota
State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
March 5, 1998
A big shift in crop-production technique is under way as the first waves of transgenic soybeans, cotton and corn begin appearing in the fields of America. The shift will mean that many growers will be using different herbicides, fewer pesticides and less adjuvants—and they'll also be paying more of their money to seed companies and less to chemical companies, according to Alan Dexter, sugar beet weed specialist for the North Dakota State University Extension Service.
Dexter estimates that eventually 291 million acres of U.S. farmland will be managed differently, as farmers plant more crops that are artificially bred to be impervious to certain powerful herbicides, or bred to produce toxins that ward off insects.
Growers who plant Roundup-Ready soybeans, for instance, will use primarily Roundup to control weeds, rather than the panoply of chemical weapons they currently apply for that purpose. Growers who plant B.t. corn or cotton will still need insecticides, but less—perhaps one application for cotton, says Dexter, rather than three.
Last year, he says, farmers planted 5.1 million acres of transgenic corn and cotton that had been engineered to produce the B.t. toxin that kills European corn borer, bud worms and boll worms. Growers also planted 9 million acres of soybeans transgenically engineered to be resistant to Roundup Ultra. Within the next three to five years a host of new herbicide-resistant and B.t. crop varieties are expected to be available, including Liberty-resistant corn, soybeans, canola, sugar beets and rice, as well as B.t. potatoes.
"Estimating how much is spent per acre on pesticides for all of these crops is difficult," says Dexter, "but surely it averages at least $10 an acre, and at that rate nearly $3 billion will be spent differently on raising these crops in the future.
"As a weed scientist," Dexter adds, "I wonder about the long-term future of the weed science discipline, since methods for controlling weeds in crops bioengineered for herbicide resistance are likely to be simpler and more effective than present methods for controlling weeds in traditional crops."
Dexter will speak in detail on the transgenic revolution in crop production at the 36th International Sugarbeet Institute, which opens on Wednesday, March 18, at 8 a.m. and concludes March 19 at 5 p.m. Dexter speaks at 10:25 a.m. on Thursday, March 19. The Institute program is free and open to the public. For more information on the event, call Allan Cattanach at (701) 231-8596 or Alan Dexter at 231-8131.
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Source: Alan Dexter (701) 231-8131
Editor: Barry Brissman (701) 231-7866