Genetically Modified Crops Reach 9 Percent of Global Crop Production

Frankencrops reached 9 percent of global primary crop production in 2007, according to Worldwatch Institute estimates published in the latest Vital Signs Update. The United States is still the leader in producing GMO crops, accounting for half of the global total.

From the Environmental News Network:

“GM crops are definitely not a silver bullet,” said Alice McKeown, a researcher for the Worldwatch Institute. “They sound good on paper, but we have yet to see glowing results.”

Even as GM crop area expands, tensions are building. The European Union is expected to offer new guidance on the crops by the end of the year.  Meanwhile, a new scientific study funded by the Austrian government suggests that a popular variety of GM corn reduces fertility in mice, raising questions about the technology’s safety.

Genetically modified crops are simply not the answer to poverty and food production problems. There is no evidence to support the claim that they are. We are already spraying crops with tons of chemicals that are altering the earth and our bodies – playing Dr. Frankenstein with them seems like an incredibly misguided approach.

Link [Environmental News Network]
Photo credit: Old American Century

Monsanto Says Hormone-Pumped Cows are Good for the Environment

Cornell University researchers, along with Monsanto, have said that injecting dairy cows with Monsanto’s recombitant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is good for the environment. They claim that rBGH makes each cow produce more milk, so we would then need fewer cows, therefore we’d need less land and resources to raise dairy cows. In effect, according to the researchers, for every 1 million cows supplemented with the hormone, the reduction in carbon footprint would be equivalent to removing about 400,000 cars from the road or planting 300 million trees.

The Daily Kos has, er, beef with that argument, and has explained it thusly:

Why It’s a Load of Bull: Their entire argument assumes that you need to feed cows corn. You don’t. You actually shouldn’t. Cows evolved to eat GRASS. They evolved to graze. Grazing requires very little resources and energy. Here’s why:

First, grass is a perennial. You don’t need to plant it every year like you do with corn and soy. You plant it once, it grows, the cow eats it, it grows back. Planting stuff takes energy. Less planting = less energy.

Second of all, when cows graze, they harvest their own food. Harvesting food requires energy. You must harvest corn. You also have to process it and transport it before the cows can eat it. That takes energy too.

From what I’ve read, feeding cows grass or grain isn’t entirely an either/or. You can feed them a mix of both. What is important is not whether they eat any grain, but how much grain they eat. With a diet of mostly grass, the cows can tolerate some grain and stay healthy.

Ok, well, why not switch to feeding cows grass instead of grain, so they’re healthier and require less antibiotics, and we can cut out the need for growth hormone all together? Oh, wait. That’s right. Cows fed hormones need more calories than grass alone provides – they need grain. Monsanto produces grain. Patented grain that has been genetically engineered not to self-seed so that farmers have to buy new seeds from Monsanto every year to produce more grain. More grain, which is fed to all of these cows that will then need Monsanto’s growth hormone in order to produce more milk to supposedly help the environment. Because Monsanto’s all about helping the environment, right?

Link [The Daily Kos] via [Groovy Green]
Photo credit: Flickr user joi