Sydney, Australia
August 4, 2004
University of Sydney
researchers have provided firm evidence that a popular GM
cotton crop provides significant environmental benefits,
leading to the reduction in the use of pesticides associated
with conventional cotton production.
Using field measurements, researchers from
the Faculty of
Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources have shown that
herbicides typically used on Monsanto's Roundup Ready cotton
pose a lower risk to the environment than herbicides
commonly used on conventional cotton crops, significantly
reducing the risk of off-site contamination in Australian
cotton production.
The report A Snapshot of Roundup Ready Cotton in
Australia, which is co-authored by Dr Angus Crossan and
Professor Ivan Kennedy, also shows that the weed control
programs used with Roundup Ready cotton allow reduced
tillage practices and fewer precautionary applications of
residual herbicides, providing further environmental
benefits.
Herbicides used on cotton production can have a potentially
harmful effect on aquatic life, affecting plants that
provide food and habitat for fish and other aquatic animals
and sometimes being directly toxic to these animals.
Since the introduction of Roundup Ready cotton in 2000, it
has been quickly adopted by Australian cotton growers,
totaling more than 40 per cent of the cotton crop in the
2003/4 season.
The Roundup Ready cotton field project was initiated by
Monsanto in 2001 to objectively test predications of reduced
environmental risk through the introduction of Roundup Ready
technology to Australia. Managed by consulting firm Maunsell
Australia Ltd, with assistance from CSIRO Land and Water and
The University of Sydney, the process involved both desktop
risk assessment and comprehensive field trials.
Assessment of the relative risk to ecosystems from the
herbicides used in the field experiments was expressed by
considering the exposure of the herbicides and their
toxicity to two species found in riverine ecosystems, trout
and water flea. The methods followed the recognised
framework for environmental risk assessment (ERA).
In addition to the reduction in environmental risk, economic
benefits from its use, shown by other studies, could also
explain the extremely rapid uptake of the Roundup Ready
technology by the Australian Cotton Industry.
Commenting on the results and methodology, report co-author
Professor Ivan Kennedy, said 'The use of glyphosate in
combination with other low risk herbicides for weed control
proves an opportunity to significantly reduce the risk of
off-site herbicide contamination in Australian cotton
production.'
'Laboratory data are not equivalent to the measurements
obtained from the field. In this study, field data have
improved the reliability of the risk assessment of GM
cotton, contributing to the responsible management of
agrochemicals and providing factual evidence for the debate
about gene technology in agriculture.'
Crossan, A and Kennedy,
I. (2004)
A Snapshot of Roundup Ready® Cotton in Australia
Report in PDF format:
www.agric.usyd.edu.au/research/p/RR%20cotton%20snapshot.pdf
|
