Global GM experiment must stop, say’s Green Party

More research into genetically-modified plants and herbicides must be done, in the light of more evidence that they fail to deliver the benefits their developers claim.

The Green Party’s Leader Natalie Bennett spoke out after research discovered herbicide use increased 11 per cent from 1996-2011 – despite claims from Monsanto that its Roundup plants and weed control products would ‘decrease the overall use of herbicides’.

Ms Bennett said: ‘We have been here before and the response we must make remains the same. We have been far too quick to jump into a huge worldwide experiment, without understanding what will happen. We are now gaining some understanding of what these products can and can’t deliver. But that understanding should be gained in a laboratory, not in fields across the world where food is produced. We must take a step back and allow some tests to show what we’re actually putting into the ground.’

Monsanto argued that its Roundup herbicide was more efficient than any other on the market – so efficient that it also developed a series of Roundup Ready crops, including corn, soy and cotton, to withstand it.

The firm hoped the new herbicide would be so effective that far less of it could be used, far more often, than other, non-GM herbicides.

But in a study published in Environmental Sciences Europe, Charles Benbrook of Washington State University’s Centre for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources reported evidence to the contrary.

His study found that although herbicide use decreased by two per cent from 1996-98, it then increased to 11 per cent higher than it had been before Roundup had been developed.

This is because non-crop plants quickly became immune to Roundup herbicide, so farmers had to turn to increasing levels of other herbicides to ‘clear’ them.

Ms Bennett said: ‘This seems to suggest we missed an important opportunity before planting these crops and relying on the promises of the people who manufactured them, to study the impacts of GM food. Herbicides are very dangerous, capable of poisoning animals and water supplies as well as plants, and their use should be reducing, rather than increasing as they have done with Roundup.

‘It seems clear we have to move away from large-scale industrial agriculture and back to small-scale family farms that work with and respect the natural environment.’