OT? SUPERWEEDS SPREAD ACROSS CANADA

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GE CANOLA SUPERWEEDS SPREAD ACROSS CANADA

The Ottawa Citizen

By Tom Spears

February 6, 2001

 

http://www.purefood.org/gefood/canolasuperweeds.cfm

 

Genetically modified " superweeds " have invaded Canadian farms -- canola

plants engineered to help farmers that instead escaped and cross-bred with

each other to form plants stronger than their parents.

 

Most pesticides can't kill these canola superweeds, which are sprouting up

in wheat fields and other areas where farmers don't want them, Canada's

expert panel on biotechnology says.

 

Three types of canola, each engineered with genes to resist one type of

weedkiller, have merged into new varieties resistant to many pesticides.

Instead of helping farmers avoid weeds, the canola itself has become the

weed.

 

The superweed-canola is especially bad in the Prairies, where canola is a

multibillion-dollar crop, says a report released yesterday from the Royal

Society of Canada's biotech experts.

 

The biotech industry has been " naive " in thinking that good farming methods

alone will hold superweeds at bay, the report says.

 

And the panel warns that as the next generation of genetically engineered

crops becomes more complex, it will be tougher to head off the superweeds of

the future.

 

Canola " is the classic example " of a superweed, said Brian Ellis, a co-chair

of the panel and molecular biologist from the University of British

Columbia.

 

Canola varieties such as Liberty Link and Roundup Ready were engineered to

use with a pesticide [sic] (such as Roundup). The idea was that a farmer

would plant canola resistant to Roundup, then spray the field with Roundup.

 

Everything except the canola would die.

 

Where canola is nearly pesticide-proof, it can crowd out other plants --

crops and weeds -- in farm fields.

 

But its resistance to pesticides doesn't help its survival in the wild,

where there are no pesticides.

 

" The next generation ... is crops that come along carrying genes thatmake

them more frost-tolerant or drought-tolerant. They have an advantage over

their wild cousins, " Mr. Ellis said.

 

That means they will have a bioengineered advantage in taking over farm

fields and in moving through wild areas.

 

" Herbicide-resistant volunteer canola planta aare beginning to develop into

a major problem " in the Prairies, the panel's report says. (Volunteer plants

are those that seed themselves.)

 

Canola has been farmed for only a few generations and so it still has some

wild tendencies -- such as dropping its seeds before a farmer can harvest

them. This plants seeds for next year.

 

And plants, the report says, " can be quite promiscuous. " Canola plants will

breed with any other canola they meet, creating the phenomenon of " gene

stacking, " or accumulating all the genes originally built into different

strains by different laboratories.

 

This forces farmers to retreat to " broad-spectrum " pesticides - chemicals

that kill just about anything, such as 2,4-D. These are chemicals that

farmers were trying to get away from in the first place.

 

" The point is, technology is still driving agricultural production along a

chemical-dependence route. And I think that's something the government has

to take a very serious look at, " Mr. Ellis said.

 

Biotech industry reps told the expert panel that good farming will stop

superweeds from evolving.

 

" This perspective may be unduly naive, " the report says. " In the real world,

human error and expediency may often compromise guidelines for the growing

of such crops. "