www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The trouble with spraying fields of crops genetically modified to resist
herbicides is that all the weeds die. Bad for the environment - if good for
the farmer. Now there is a sweet solution.
John Pidgeon of the Broom's Barn Research Station, Bury St Edmunds, UK, and
colleagues analysed the results of British farm-scale evaluation trials of
GM crops. When GM sugar beet was grown using a two-spray system to control
weeds, weed biomass and seed fell by 17 and 31 per cent respectively, in
comparison to conventional growing methods, meaning less food for birds and
mammals.

Pidgeon's team suggests leaving two rows of crops in every 100 rows
untouched. They have calculated that this would produce weed seed equivalent
to that in typical beet crops (Proceedings of The Royal Society B, DOI:
10.1098/rspb.2007.0401).

Pidgeon says that growing GM sugar beet would bring major agronomic and
economic benefits to farmers. "Weed control conventionally in sugar beet is
rather difficult, yet in herbicide-tolerant GM beet it is very simple," he
says.

He says his team's analytical approach to assessing and managing
environmental risks could be adopted widely.

[environment.newscientist.com]