Bt cotton, a genetically engineered variety inserted with a gene from soil bacteria to produce a toxin that kills certain types of pests, was first introduced to China in 1997 by Monsanto. It was advertised as a magical fix to pest problems. Since then the area of cultivation has increased to 1.5 million hectares in 2001, which is 35% of the total cotton area. Monsanto’s Bt cotton accounts for two third of all GE cotton grown in China.
According to the report titled “A Summary of Research on the Environmental Impacts of Bt-cotton in China”, laboratory tests for selection of Bt-resistant bollworm indicated that susceptibility of bollworm to the Bt toxin fell to 30 percent after 17 generations under continuous feeding with Bt cotton leaves. The resistance of the bollworm increased 1000 times when the feeding was continued to the 40th generation. Moreover, the population of parasitic natural enemies of cotton bollworm was reduced significantly in Bt cotton fields.
Secondary pests, such as cotton aphids, cotton spider mites, thrips and others, replaced the cotton bollworm as primary pests in some of the cotton fields. In addition, the resistance of Bt cotton to cotton bollworm decreases over time.
“As farmers growing this GE crop are now finding themselves entangled in Bt-resistant superbugs, emerging secondary pests, diminishing natural enemies, destabilized insect ecology, and the need to keep spraying chemical pesticides to deal with the increasingly uncontrollable situation, will Monsanto deal with any of these problems their lack of precaution have caused?” asked Lo Sze Ping, Greenpeace China Program Manager.
According to the report titled “A Summary of Research on the Environmental Impacts of Bt-cotton in China”, laboratory tests for selection of Bt-resistant bollworm indicated that susceptibility of bollworm to the Bt toxin fell to 30 percent after 17 generations under continuous feeding with Bt cotton leaves. The resistance of the bollworm increased 1000 times when the feeding was continued to the 40th generation. Moreover, the population of parasitic natural enemies of cotton bollworm was reduced significantly in Bt cotton fields.
Secondary pests, such as cotton aphids, cotton spider mites, thrips and others, replaced the cotton bollworm as primary pests in some of the cotton fields. In addition, the resistance of Bt cotton to cotton bollworm decreases over time.
“As farmers growing this GE crop are now finding themselves entangled in Bt-resistant superbugs, emerging secondary pests, diminishing natural enemies, destabilized insect ecology, and the need to keep spraying chemical pesticides to deal with the increasingly uncontrollable situation, will Monsanto deal with any of these problems their lack of precaution have caused?” asked Lo Sze Ping, Greenpeace China Program Manager.