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Question

It seems that nothing has been proven about whether GMO ingrediants are or are not goodbad for the health. Isnt the real issue the fact that GMO producing companies use clearly unhealthful farming practices such as using nicitinotids on their products?

Submitted by: yanere


Answer

Expert response from Iain Kelley

Director, Regulatory Policy and Issue Management, Bayer Crop Science

Friday, 06/05/2015 14:10

Your question raises the issue of sustainability of modern agriculture practices, particularly the breeding of GMO crops and the use of neonicotinoids. As the need for increased food production without increasing land use becomes critical, both GMOs and neonicotinoid seed treatments become complementary and responsible solutions to achieve this goal. By either incorporating the technology into the seed (GMO) or firmly attaching the insecticide to the seed (seed treatment), these technologies provide highly effective crop protection by targeting the activity where it is needed, thus reducing potential exposure to workers and reducing the overall amount of insecticide applied in the environment (see www.growingmatters.org).

 

Seed treatment with neonicotinoids complements GMO insecticidal activity by controlling a wide range of devastating insects. In corn, this includes insects such as wireworm, white grub, black cutworm, corn flea beetle, Southern corn billbug, Southern green stinkbug, sugarcane beetle, grape colaspis and aphids. These insects are not controlled in available transgenic corn varieties, and thus the growers’ investment in such technology is protected with conservative average yield increases of 17.4 percent, compared with untreated control seed being determined in a large number of trials conducted over a wide range of geographies (www.growingmatters.org). Both technologies have been tested extensively to ensure there are no unacceptable environmental or human risks.