Sparky, you are absolutely correct that farmers can get things wrong with technology and stuff it up. But, it needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Chinese farmers have been growing Bt cotton for 11 years now without getting any resistance. The same might not be true if the same farmers grew Roundup Ready cotton.

One of the problems with antibiotic resistance is that it is a social problem. It can easily and readily spread from one person to another. While over-prescription of antibiotics for viral diseases is a problem, most antibiotic resistance occurs in hospital settings. Hospitals accumulate large numbers of sick patients, many with compromised or poorly functioning immune systems and lots of antibiotics are used. This is the perfect environment for resistance to be selected and then passed to somebody else. If resistance is selected, but not passed on, it doesn’t matter. Better management of antibiotic resistance is essential to protect the vulnerable members of our society who spend large amounts of time in hospital. For this reason, I am against the prophylactic use of new generation antibiotics in the animal production industry.

Likewise, Bt resistance is a social problem. This is why resistance management plans are necessary. The refuge is a vital part of the plan, but it doesn’t matter how that refuge is created, merely that the refuge works. So in the third world, refuges can simply be other crops due to the mosaic of crop planting. If there was to be wall-to-wall Bt crops, I would be really concerned.

In contrast, herbicide resistance tends not to be a social problem. It occurs on the fields where the farmer used the herbicide and if it moves off, it only causes a problem if it moves in large numbers to a place where the same herbicide is used. So if a third world farmer uses a HT crop indiscriminately and gets HT weeds that only affect them, should we stop everybody having access?

Dear Max Rheese,
Can you unequivocally state that you have no vested interest in the spread of GM into agriculture by way of shares, commissions, fees or any other benefit from GM companies?
R.G.H. Cotton AM BAgSc, PhD, DSc