CropLife Canada argues that genetically modified crops have actually reduced the need for multiple applications
The proliferation of genetically modified crops has led to increased herbicide use, according to the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.
The group says Canadian farmers bought 50.3 million kilograms of herbicides in 2011 compared to 21.9 million kg in 1994, the year before GM crops were commercialized.
That is a 130 percent increase in herbicide sales over that period.
The data comes from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and Health Canada. No data has been published since 2011.
“There is a strong correlation between the expansion of GM herbicide-tolerant crop area and the increased use of herbicides in Canada,” said CBAN co-ordinator Lucy Sharratt.
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Her conclusion is at odds with the message biotechnology proponents have been circulating for years.
For instance, in its 2014 annual report on the status of GM crop commercialization, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications said the adoption of GM crops has reduced global pesticide use by 37 percent over the past 20 years.
As well, a new study by PG Economics Ltd. said biotechnology has reduced pesticide spraying by 550 million kg, or 8.6 percent, between 1996 and 2013.
Sharratt said the Canadian data is pretty clear and noted that the more than doubling of herbicide use can’t be blamed on increased cropland. Total land under cultivation in Canada increased one percent between 1995 and 2011.
“The explanation for the increase of herbicides looks to be pesticide use intensity rather than increased cropland,” she said.
Ian Affleck, managing director of science and regulatory affairs for biotechnology with CropLife Canada, said it is impossible to make a direct link between increased herbicide use and the advent of GM crops.
Annual herbicide use depends on weather, crop prices and what were the popular crop choices for that year.
“Overall, the introduction of herbicide tolerant traits has made controlling weed pests on farm much easier for the farmer, which allows them to be much more efficient in producing their crops,” he said.
Affleck acknowledged that herbicide tolerant crops could increase herbicide use by replacing tillage with an application of glyphosate, but that’s not a bad thing for the environment.
“These herbicides are approved as safe by Health Canada, and glypho-sate specifically is one of the safest herbicides that we’ve seen come on the market,” he said.
GM crops have reduced soil and wind erosion while increasing water retention by facilitating the increased adoption of no till seeding systems, he added.
Affleck said it could also be argued that GM crops have reduced herbicide use because farmers used to rely on multiple herbicides. They now only need one to do the job in many instances, which means reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
“They can manage in one pass over their field what may have taken them multiple passes in the past,” he said.
Sharratt said that may have been the case in the past but not since the development of herbicide tolerant weeds.
“Those weeds, in particular, ramped up the use of herbicides,” she said.
CBAN’s report, Are GM Crops Better for the Environment?, said the widespread adoption of herbicide tolerant crops has driven up the use of glyphosate, which has resulted in the emergence of glyphosate resistant weeds.
There are five species of glyphosate-resistant weeds in Canada.
Affleck said GM crops can’t be solely blamed for the development of herbicide resistant weeds. He be-lieves it would have happened any-way.
“Pests will always strive to find a way to get around our methods of managing them,” he said.
It’s why farmers need to use integrated pest management strategies on their farms, which incorporate GM crops, pesticides, good farming practices and sustainable rotations.
Sharratt worries that glyphosate resistant weeds have led to the development and regulatory approval of dicamba and 2,4-D tolerant crops, which she fears will lead to even more herbicide use.
She believes that is a bad thing for the environment, noting that North America has lost 90 percent of its Monarch butterfly population over the past 20 years because of the de-struction of milkweed habitat caused by glyphosate use on GM corn in the United States.
