Authors: Ronald Bailey
planting modern biotech crop varieties:
Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot, “Global Impact of Biotech Crops: Environmental Effects, 1996â2010.”
GM Crops and Food: Biotechnology in Agriculture and the Food Chain,
April/May/June 2012, 129â137.
www.landesbioscience.com/journals/gmcrops/2012GMC0002R.pdf
.
national herbicide and insecticide usage:
Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo et al., “Pesticide Use in U.S. Agriculture: 21 Selected Crops, 1960â2008.” Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-124), May 2014.
www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib-economic-information-bulletin/eib124.aspx#.VD2XVRaKX_Y
.
147 agronomic studies:
Wilhelm Kl
ü
mper and Matin Qaim, “A Meta-Analysis of the Impacts of Genetically Modified Crops.”
PLoS One,
November 3, 2014.
www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0111629
.
none reacted in a way:
Investigation of Human Health Effects Associated with Potential Exposure to Genetically Modified Corn, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 11, 2001, 24.
www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehhe/Cry9Creport/pdfs/cry9creport.pdf
.
lower in potent cancer-causing mycotoxins:
Felicia Wu, “Mycotoxin Reduction in Bt Corn: Potential Economic, Health, and Regulatory Impacts.”
ISB News Report,
September 2006, 3.
www.nbiap.vt.edu/news/2006/artspdf/sep0604.pdf
.
poisoned monarch butterfly caterpillars:
John H. Losey, Linda S. Rayor, and Maureen E. Carter, “Transgenic Pollen Harms Monarch Larvae.”
Nature
399 (May 20, 1999): 214.
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v399/n6733/abs/399214a0.html
.
impact on monarch butterfly populations:
Mark K. Searset et al., “Impact of Bt Corn Pollen on Monarch Butterfly Populations: A Risk Assessment.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
98.21 (2001): 11937â11942.
www.pnas.org/content/98/21/11937.long
.
“commercialized GM crops”:
J. E. Carpenter, “Impact of GM Crops on Biodiversity.”
GM Crops
2.1 (January/March 2011): 7â23.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21844695
.
“Many U.S. farmers”:
National Research Council,
The Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States
. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2010.
www.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12804
.
“no evidence”:
International Council for Science, “New Genetics, Food and Agriculture: Scientific DiscoveriesâSocietal Dilemmas,” 2003.
www.icsu.org/publications/reports-and-reviews/new-genetics-food-and-agriculture-scientific-discoveries-societal-dilemas-2003
.
introduction of modern herbicides and pesticides:
Ronald Bailey
, “Asking the Wrong Questions.”
Reason,
November 5, 2003.
reason.com/archives/2003/11/05/asking-the-wrong-questions
. Cites results of three-year Farm Scale Evaluation reported in Theme Issue “The Farm Scale Evaluations of Spring-Sown Genetically Modified Crops” of
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B,
November 29, 2003.
rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/358/1439.toc
.
saves 1 billion tons of topsoil:
Richard Fawcett and Dan Towery,
Conservation Tillage and Plant Biotechnology: How New Technologies Can Improve the Environment by Reducing the Need to Plow
. Conservation Technology Information Center, 2003.
www.ctic.org/media/pdf/Biotech2003.pdf
.
reduces the runoff:
Fawcett and Towery,
Conservation Tillage and Plant Biotechnology
.
“marked contrast to yield increases”:
“An Analysis of âFailure to Yield' by Doug Gurian-Sherman, Union of Concerned Scientists,” Wayne Parrott, Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, and Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia. Updated April 2, 2010.
www.salmone.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/response-to-ucs.pdf
.
“are scale neutral”:
FAO,
The State of Food and Agriculture 2003â2004
.
www.fao.org/es/esa/pdf/sofa_flyer_04_en.pdf
.
insect-resistant cotton varieties:
Richard Bennett et al., “Farm-Level Economic Performance of Genetically Modified Cotton in Maharashtra, India.”
Review of Agricultural Economics
28.1 (January 2006): 59â71.
www.agbioworld.org/pdf/ReviewAgricEconomicsj.pdf
.
“adopters compared to non-adopters”:
Janet E. Carpenter, “Peer-Reviewed Surveys Indicate Positive Impact of Commercialized GM Crops.”
Nature Biotechnology
28.4 (April 2010): 319â321.
www.ask-force.org/web/Benefits/Carpenter-Peer-Reviewed-Surveys-GM-crops-2010.pdf
.
“non-target and beneficial organisms”:
A. M. Mannion and Stephen Morse, “Gm Crops 1996â2012: A Review of Agronomic, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts,” University of Surrey, Centre for Environmental Strategy Working Paper 04/13; also published as University of Reading Geographical Paper No. 195, April 2013.
www.surrey.ac.uk/ces/activity/publications/index.htm
.
“traditional pillars of sustainability”:
Julian Park et al., “The Role of Transgenic Crops in Sustainable Development.”
Plant Biotechnology Journal
9.1 (January 2011): 2â21.
“positive in both developed and developing”:
A. M. Mannion and Stephen Morse, “Biotechnology in Agriculture: Agronomic and Environmental Considerations and Reflections Based on 15 Years of GM Crops.”
Progress in Physical Geography
36.6 (December 2012): 747â763.
ppg.sagepub.com/content/36/6/747.abstract
.
anti-biotech activists:
Mark Lynas, “The True Story About Who Destroyed a Genetically Modified Rice Crop.”
Slate,
August 26, 2013.
www.slate.com/blogs/Future_tense/2013/08/26/golden_rice_attack_in_philippines_anti_gmo_activists_lie_about_protest_and.html
.
attacks on crop biotechnology:
Bruce Alberts et al., “Standing Up for GMOs.”
Science
341.6152 (September 20, 2013): 1320.
www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6152/1320.full
1.4 million life-years:
Justus Wesseler and David Zilberman, “The Economic Power of the Golden Rice Opposition.”
Environment and Development Economics
19.6 (December 2014): 724â742.
journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=1BDDA1658A3F79A7C0EECD575E3C90CD.journals?aid=9402215&fileId=S1355770X1300065X
.
“The first inkling of what”:
Andrew J. Forgash, “History, Evolution, and Consequences of Insecticide Resistance.”
Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology
22.2 (October 1984): 178â186.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048357584900877
.
“A mixture of insecticides”:
Mallet, James, “The Evolution of Insecticide Resistance: Have the Insects Won?”
Trends in Ecology and Evolution
4.11 (November 1989): 336â340.
www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/pap/mallet89tree.pdf
.
herbicide-resistant weeds:
International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, April 2014,
www.weedscience.org/summary/home.aspx
.
“Herbicide resistant weed development”:
Andrew Kniss, “Where Are the Superweeds?” May 1, 2013.
weedcontrolfreaks.com/2013/05/superweed/
.
organic standards are process standards:
Ronald Bailey
, “Organic Law.”
Reason,
October 2, 2002.
reason.com/archives/2002/10/02/organic-law
. Cites Kershen's legal analysis.
“The gradual spread of sterility”:
Vandana Shiva,
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2000.
“the fuel of
interest
”:
Abraham Lincoln, “Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions,” April 6, 1858.
www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/discoveries.htm
.
court decided against Schmeiser:
Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser
[2004], 1 S.C.R. 902, 2004 SCC 34.
scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2147/index.do
.
court ruled unanimously against:
Bowman v. Monsanto,
US Supreme Court, May 13, 2013.
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-796_c07d.pdf
.
“most people do not actively avoid”:
European Commission,
A Decade of EU-Funded GMO Research,
December 2010.
ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf
.
“has no basis for concluding”:
FDA, “Guidance for Industry: Voluntary Labeling Indicating Whether Foods Have or Have Not Been Developed Using Bioengineering; Draft Guidance,” January 2001.
www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm059098.htm
.
“The FDA does not require labeling”:
Board of Directors, Association for the Advancement of Science, “Statement by the AAAS Board of Directors on Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods,” October 20, 2012.
no scientific reason:
Editorial Board, “Why Label Genetically Engineered Food?”
New York Times,
March 14, 2013.
www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/opinion/why-label-genetically-engineered-food.html?_r=1&
.
source non-GMO ingredients:
Walter Robb and A. C. Gallo, “GMO Labeling Coming to Whole Foods Market.” Whole Story Blog, March 8, 2013.
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/gmo-labeling-coming-whole-foods-market
.
require the FDA to promulgate rules:
Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014,
pompeo.house.gov/uploadedfiles/safeandaccuratefoodlabellingactof2014.pdf
.
“slow the development of agricultural biotechnology”:
David Zilberman, “Why Labeling of GMOs Is Actually Bad for People and the Environment.”
blogs.berkeley.edu/2012/06/06/why-labeling-of-gmos-is-actually-bad-for-people-and-the-environment/comment-page-2/
.
costs about $136 million:
Phillips McDougall, “The Cost and Time Involved in the Discovery, Development and Authorisation of a New Plant Biotechnology Derived Trait.” A Consultancy Study for Crop Life International, September 2011.
“Indian farmers have committed suicide”:
Amy Goodman, Interview with Vandana Shiva at
Democracy Now!
Transcript, “Vandana Shiva on International Women's Day: âCapitalist Patriarchy Has Aggravated Violence Against Women,'” March 8, 2013.
www.democracynow.org/2013/3/8/vandana_shiva_on_intl_womens_day
.
Kloor eviscerates Shiva's stories:
Keith Kloor, “The GMO-Suicide Myth.”
Issues in Science and Technology,
February 5, 2014.
issues.org/30-2/keith/
.
“the adoption of GM cotton”:
Matin Qaim and Shahzad Kouser, “Genetically Modified Crops and Food Security.”
PLoS One,
June 15, 2013, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064879.
“did not find a systematic relation”:
Anoop Sadanandan, “Political Economy of Suicide: Financial Reforms, Credit Crunches, and Farmer Suicides in India.”
Journal of Developing Areas
48.4 (Fall 2014): 287â307.
www.anoopsadanandan.com/PoliticalEconomyofSuicide.pdf
.
“male farmer suicide rates have actually declined”:
Ian Plewis, “Hard Evidence: Does GM Cotton Lead to Farmer Suicide in India?”
The Conversation,
March 12, 2014.
theconversation.com/hard-evidence-does-gm-cotton-lead-to-farmer-suicide-in-india-24045
.
“specific changes in wood chemistry”:
Steven Strauss, Stephen P. DiFazio, and Richard Meilan, “Genetically Modified Poplars in Context.”
The Forestry Chronicle
77.2 (March/April 2001): 271â276.
www.cof.orst.edu/coops/tbgrc/publications/Strauss_2001_The_Forestry_Chronicle.pdf
.
most of the world's wood products:
Roger Sedjo, “From Foraging to Cropping: The Transition to Plantation Forestry, and Implications for Wood Supply and Demand.” Resources for the Future,
www.fao.org/docrep/003/x8820e/x8820e06.htm
.
“wheat-gene tweaked freaks”:
Bernd Heinrich, “Revitalizing Our Forests.”
New York Times,
December 21, 2013.
new biotech variety of rice:
Elizabeth Svoboda, “The Future of Farming Is Nitrogen Efficiency.”
Fast Company,
October 1, 2008.
www.fastcompany.com/1007058/future-farming-nitrogen-efficiency
.
biotech canola:
Arcadia Biosciences website, April 20, 2014.
www.arcadiabio.com/products
.
salt tolerance, drought tolerance:
Andy Coghlan, “Super-rice Defies Triple Whammy of Stresses.”
The New Scientist
16 (February 28, 2014): 38.
www.newscientist.com/article/dn25147-superrice-defies-triple-whammy-of-stresses.html#.U1KcvFfJGRM
.
transfer the C4 photosynthetic pathway:
Shanta Karki, Govinda Rizal, and William Paul Quick, “Improvement of Photosynthesis in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) by Inserting the C4 Pathway.”
Rice Journal,
October 28, 2013.
www.thericejournal.com/content/6/1/28/
.
heat tolerance:
Elizabeth A. Ainsworth, Alistair Rogers and Andrew D. B. Leakey, “Targets for Crop Biotechnology in a Future High-CO
2
and High-O
3
World.” Plant Physiology
147.1
(May 2008): 13â19.
www.plantphysiol.org/content/147/1/13.full
.