Doesn genetic engineering allow farmers to use less pesticide?
The vast majority of the GMOs growing today are engineered to withstand direct dosing with farm chemicals. These crops mean more chemicals on our food and farms, not less. Some GMO crops are engineered to produce their own insecticide, in hopes that farmers will then spray less often. At best, results with these crops have been mixed, as farmers still must spray their fields for insects that are not killed by the inserted toxin (1). And in the long run, these GMO crops may destroy organic farming – so farmers who use no pesticides will be out of business. (1) Andy Coghlan and Barry Fox, “Genetically modified plants may still need pesticides”, New Scientist, December 18, 1999.
