GM-free Scotland

News | July '07 | There's more than one way to deal with drought

One way ...

Current changing weather conditions, strongly suspected of being linked to global warming, have led to increasing drought in many areas.

After seeing its crop yields down by 50% and predicted grain price hikes of 21%, Australia seems to have been panicked by the possibility of food shortages into turning to GM.

The first ever field trials of GM wheat are about to take place in Victoria, to test 30 drought-tolerant wheat lines containing genes derived from maize, thale cress, moss or yeast. Aware, perhaps, of public unease over GM, the trial sites will reportedly total only 0.315 hectares.

The biotech industry is trying to 'sell' Australia the ideas that “GM foods are exactly the technology that may be necessary to counter the effects of global warming” and “may be the only way of sustaining future agriculture”.

But there's another way ...

The development of successful drought-resistant GM strains could be ten years away, if it happens at all. Non-GM varieties will be available much sooner.

The alternative to re-designing crops to need less water is to re-design the soil to enable it to hold more water and to promote better root development. This conserves the water that's there and increases root access to it. It is called organic farming.

Experiments in Pennsylvania, showed that, in a year of normal rainfall, yields of conventional and organic soya were equivalent at 40 bushels/acre. However, in a drought year, with only one third of average rainfall, conventional soya yields were down 60% compared with only 25% for organic.

And another ...

And yet another way is to rethink agriculture to reduce the amount of water needed. The crops bred for use in intensive farming, which now includes GM crops, need large quantities of water to grow. The chemicals on which they depend, also require water to prepare and apply.

TO DEAL WITH SOIL EROSION

One way ...

Farmers growing herbicide-resistant GM crops don't have to plough their fields to get rid of weeds, but can use seed drills to sow seed directly into earth bared by chemicals.

But there's another way ...

No-till agriculture can, and is, used without GM plants because the weedkiller only has to be used before sowing the seeds and before the plants are there. The method has to be used with care as it can lead to soil compaction, poor root development and reduced yield.

Much better to prevent soil erosion and compaction by sticking it all together with organic matter which the plants' roots can penetrate with ease. This is called organic farming, and can also be combined with no-till methods.

TO DEAL WITH AGRICULTURAL CARBON EMISSIONS

One way ...

Biotech industry sources suggest that 85% of carbon emissions in agriculture come from soil organic matter which has been exposed to the atmosphere by ploughing. The solution is GM herbicide-tolerant crops and no-till agriculture.

But there's another way ...

Besides using no-till without the GM (see above), organic crop rotation can be designed to fix CO2 in the soil.

TO DEAL WITH PESTS

One way ...

The monocultures of the Green Revolution have turned out to provide banqueting tables for pests, while intensification serves the banquet all the year round.

The upshot of this is that, for example in the case of Indian cotton, 40% of the annual cost is now spent on pesticides which still often fail to control insect damage, and insecticide use in increasing by 7% every year. Add to this that the indiscriminate spraying of insecticides has created ecological havoc. In the early 1960s when there were only 6-7 major pests worrying cotton farmers, now they are battling with some 70. Recent statistics suggest that there have been 1500 farmer suicides in the past year due to bankruptcy.

The high-tech answer is GM crops which produce their own pesticide. And when that GM crop fails due to pest evolution, there will always be another one coming up behind it with more pesticides stacked into it ... and then another one ...

But there's another way ...

Intelligent rotation of pesticides, always keeping human and environmental health in mind.

This approach has been used in India, reducing the types of insecticides used from seven to four and limiting the time of exposure so that insect resistance hasn't a chance to develop. The scheme is introduced into whole villages at a time so that pesticide control can be co-ordinated. Farmers there are taught how to use test kits to judge which pesticide to use and when is the best time to use it.

And another ...

Another cotton-growing area of India has been successfully developing Non-Pesticidal Management. As the soil and plant health recovered under this scheme, the pests began to disappear. Within five years the entire village had dispensed with pesticides altogether. The average yield of cotton there is the same as for Bt cotton which costs nearly seven times more to manage and comes in at three times the seed price.

OUR COMMENT

A Scottish agricultural scientists said recently that “it made no sense to ignore a whole new industry”. He was referring to GM of course, which is to be expected because the biotech industry is probably his bread and butter. However, why ignore the new industries of modern organic agriculture, intelligent pesticide use, and Non-Pesticidal Management? (Answer: they are incompatible with profitable GM crop development)

Our Scottish National Party has pledged to keep GM out of Scotland. Since some of our scientists are duty-bound by their pay-masters to oppose this, keep your MSPs attention on continuing public wariness of GM, and, on the Government's promise. Also, you could suggest that money (your taxes) spent on developing organic, intelligent and non-pesticidal agriculture would be money well spent and a better use of our best scientific brains.

SOURCES

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