NFU still backs GM crops despite latest study in US

Apr 21 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal

THE National Farmers’ Union has said it still backs genetically modified crops despite the results of study conducted in the US that has shown that genetic modification can reduce productivity.

The investigation, which has been carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas, found that GM soya produces about 10% less food than a non-genetically modified crop.

Professor Barney Gordon, from the university’s department of Agronomy, said he started the research because many farmers who switched to the GM crop has noticed that yields were not as high as expected in optimal conditions.

He said: “People were asking the question ‘how come I don’t get as high a yield as I used to?’”

Prof Gordon grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field.

The GM crop produced 10% less – 70 bushels of grain per acre – than the non-GM one which produced 77 bushels per acre.

The GM crop, which had been designed to be resistant to the weedkiller Roundup, only recovered to the level of the conventional crop when extra manganese was added to the soil.

This suggests that the modification hindered the crop’s take up of this essential element from the soil. The study backs up earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM soya produced 11% less than the best non-GM soya available.

It has been suggested the process of modification decreases productivity and that while GM versions are being developed better conventional ones become available.

Despite the findings a spokesman for the National Farmers’ Union said GM crops still had an important part to play in reducing the world food crisis.

The spokesman said: “GM technology has a lot to offer in terms of allowing increased yields without the need for increased use of land or fertiliser. But we’ve got to be led by our customers because there is no point producing things that they’re not happy with.

“If GM soya doesn’t cut the mustard in terms of increased yields then farmers won’t grow it.”

Monsanto said it was surprised by the extent of the decline in crop but not by the fact that yields had dropped. It said the soya had not been engineered to increase yields and it was now developing one that would.

Last week the biggest study of its kind, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, concluded GM would not provide a solution to world hunger.

Some believe that the physiology of plants is now reaching the limits of productivity which can be achieved.