August 20, 2007
Planting the seed | Controversy swirls around genetically modified veggies. But will Bt corn help Maine's farmers?
By Kerry Elson
On July 27, the state reversed its 10-year ban on a kind of genetically modified corn that makes its own pesticide. Maine was the last state in the nation to approve the controversial variety, called Bt corn, which is implanted with the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis to resist pests like cutworm, maggots and grubs.
The decision from the Board of Pesticides Control was unanimous. It voted 6-0 to approve applications from three major seed suppliers ˆ Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Dow AgroSciences ˆ to sell a total of seven varieties of Bt corn in Maine.
The BPC hopes allowing Bt corn will reduce the use of toxic spray pesticide, which can drain from farm soil into waterways.
The board members hope it will give a leg up to Maine's conventional corn growers, who've said they find it hard to compete with their peers in the rest of the country, nearly 50% of whom use Bt corn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The decision isn't final. Organic growers worry that Bt pollen will contaminate their crop, so the BPC is drafting rules for how farmers can use the corn. The three companies, too, have to agree to tell the state how much Bt corn they sell here. But if companies agree to those conditions, the seed could be available this fall, giving farmers here a chance to catch up with farmers elsewhere.
These days, some farmers say they can't afford not to use Bt corn. The corn can boost yield by as much as 10%, says Lauchlin Titus, an agronomist in Vassalboro whom the state hired this year to research Bt corn's benefits. (Titus also consults for Monsanto, the St. Louis, Mo.-based firm that applied to sell Bt corn here.) For the last three years, almost all seed companies' highest yielding corn ˆ the kind that will produce the most product per acre ˆ has been genetically implanted with pesticide.
But because of the Bt corn ban, those kinds aren't available here. Of the 108 varieties from Pioneer that could grow in Maine, for example, about 60 are banned because they contain Bt, according to Titus.
"Farmers are losing access to newer, higher-yielding varieties," Titus says.
Pesticide roundup
In 1997, when the state denied companies' applications to sell Bt here, the variety wasn't as widespread. The technology was new and only protected against a bug that wasn't a problem here, the European corn borer. Since then, however, companies have tweaked Bt corn to resist several kinds of bugs ˆ including rootworm and caterpillars ˆ making it more attractive to Maine growers. As Bt corn became more powerful, farmers in Maine began asking for it, and the three companies eventually brought their proposals to the state a second time, in March 2007.
Bt corn wouldn't be the first genetically modified crop in Maine. About 30% of Maine farmers use another kind of genetically modified corn, Roundup Ready, which can resist herbicides that farmers spray to kill weeds in their fields.
But Bt corn sparked controversy partly because, according to organic growers, it could make bugs resistant to Bt, which they can use in spray form because it's a natural substance. If conventional farmers begin planting Bt corn, bugs could develop resistance to it, making the spray ineffective. Organic farmers also say that if Bt corn pollen travels to nearby organic plots, those crops would be contaminated and lose value.
Russell Libby, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association in Unity, says possible contamination concerns him most.
For now, the state has no laws on who's responsible for contaminated crops ˆ a bill that would put the blame on GM seed manufacturers, LD 1650, was introduced in the Legislature this spring but put off until next year. "That's all pretty challenging, figuring out what the rules are," Libby says. "As these engineered crops become more prevalent in Maine agriculture, that's the question."
One regulation the BPC hopes to implement will require farmers to plant Bt corn refuge areas, or acres that contain non-Bt corn. Those tracts of land would help prevent bugs from developing resistance to Bt, according to Gary Fish, director of pesticide programs at the BPC. Meanwhile, the BPC, which is working to limit pesticide use in Maine, hopes that using Bt corn will reduce the amount of toxic pesticides that farmers spray. About 40% of Maine's 24,000 acres of field corn is sprayed with insecticide each year, according to Titus.
Jim Crane, co-owner of Crane Brothers Farm in Exeter, is certain he'll purchase about 350 bushels of Bt corn seed if it's sold in Maine. Crane, who grows potatoes and corn on 2,400 acres, isn't sure how much money he'll save using Bt instead of spraying insecticide, which costs about $13 an acre, but he's looking forward to cutting down on his pesticide use. "There's a reason there's a skull-and-crossbones on it," he says. "If I can get rid of that, that's what I'd like to do. I don't like to be around it, and I don't like my workers to be around it."
Crane says he couldn't forgo toxic sprays altogether and go organic. "The weeds and insects would eat us alive," he says. For a 25-acre farm, abstaining might be possible, he says, but not for a farm the size of his own.
Not all farmers may be willing to try Bt corn. Titus predicts that if the state gives it final approval, a few will use it this year, and the figure will climb over the next three to four years until the state reaches the national average, 50%.
"It's one thing for the government to say, 'You can't use this,'" he says, referring to Bt corn. "It's another thing for people to be able to decide whether or not to use it."
The decision from the Board of Pesticides Control was unanimous. It voted 6-0 to approve applications from three major seed suppliers ˆ Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Dow AgroSciences ˆ to sell a total of seven varieties of Bt corn in Maine.
The BPC hopes allowing Bt corn will reduce the use of toxic spray pesticide, which can drain from farm soil into waterways.
The board members hope it will give a leg up to Maine's conventional corn growers, who've said they find it hard to compete with their peers in the rest of the country, nearly 50% of whom use Bt corn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The decision isn't final. Organic growers worry that Bt pollen will contaminate their crop, so the BPC is drafting rules for how farmers can use the corn. The three companies, too, have to agree to tell the state how much Bt corn they sell here. But if companies agree to those conditions, the seed could be available this fall, giving farmers here a chance to catch up with farmers elsewhere.
These days, some farmers say they can't afford not to use Bt corn. The corn can boost yield by as much as 10%, says Lauchlin Titus, an agronomist in Vassalboro whom the state hired this year to research Bt corn's benefits. (Titus also consults for Monsanto, the St. Louis, Mo.-based firm that applied to sell Bt corn here.) For the last three years, almost all seed companies' highest yielding corn ˆ the kind that will produce the most product per acre ˆ has been genetically implanted with pesticide.
But because of the Bt corn ban, those kinds aren't available here. Of the 108 varieties from Pioneer that could grow in Maine, for example, about 60 are banned because they contain Bt, according to Titus.
"Farmers are losing access to newer, higher-yielding varieties," Titus says.
Pesticide roundup
In 1997, when the state denied companies' applications to sell Bt here, the variety wasn't as widespread. The technology was new and only protected against a bug that wasn't a problem here, the European corn borer. Since then, however, companies have tweaked Bt corn to resist several kinds of bugs ˆ including rootworm and caterpillars ˆ making it more attractive to Maine growers. As Bt corn became more powerful, farmers in Maine began asking for it, and the three companies eventually brought their proposals to the state a second time, in March 2007.
Bt corn wouldn't be the first genetically modified crop in Maine. About 30% of Maine farmers use another kind of genetically modified corn, Roundup Ready, which can resist herbicides that farmers spray to kill weeds in their fields.
But Bt corn sparked controversy partly because, according to organic growers, it could make bugs resistant to Bt, which they can use in spray form because it's a natural substance. If conventional farmers begin planting Bt corn, bugs could develop resistance to it, making the spray ineffective. Organic farmers also say that if Bt corn pollen travels to nearby organic plots, those crops would be contaminated and lose value.
Russell Libby, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association in Unity, says possible contamination concerns him most.
For now, the state has no laws on who's responsible for contaminated crops ˆ a bill that would put the blame on GM seed manufacturers, LD 1650, was introduced in the Legislature this spring but put off until next year. "That's all pretty challenging, figuring out what the rules are," Libby says. "As these engineered crops become more prevalent in Maine agriculture, that's the question."
One regulation the BPC hopes to implement will require farmers to plant Bt corn refuge areas, or acres that contain non-Bt corn. Those tracts of land would help prevent bugs from developing resistance to Bt, according to Gary Fish, director of pesticide programs at the BPC. Meanwhile, the BPC, which is working to limit pesticide use in Maine, hopes that using Bt corn will reduce the amount of toxic pesticides that farmers spray. About 40% of Maine's 24,000 acres of field corn is sprayed with insecticide each year, according to Titus.
Jim Crane, co-owner of Crane Brothers Farm in Exeter, is certain he'll purchase about 350 bushels of Bt corn seed if it's sold in Maine. Crane, who grows potatoes and corn on 2,400 acres, isn't sure how much money he'll save using Bt instead of spraying insecticide, which costs about $13 an acre, but he's looking forward to cutting down on his pesticide use. "There's a reason there's a skull-and-crossbones on it," he says. "If I can get rid of that, that's what I'd like to do. I don't like to be around it, and I don't like my workers to be around it."
Crane says he couldn't forgo toxic sprays altogether and go organic. "The weeds and insects would eat us alive," he says. For a 25-acre farm, abstaining might be possible, he says, but not for a farm the size of his own.
Not all farmers may be willing to try Bt corn. Titus predicts that if the state gives it final approval, a few will use it this year, and the figure will climb over the next three to four years until the state reaches the national average, 50%.
"It's one thing for the government to say, 'You can't use this,'" he says, referring to Bt corn. "It's another thing for people to be able to decide whether or not to use it."
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