Genetically engineered corn loses its oomph

Farming practices threaten widely grown corn crop

Minnesota Public Radio
December 28, 2011

By RICK CALLAHAN
Associated Press

One of the nation's most widely planted crops — a genetically engineered corn plant that makes its own insecticide — may be losing its ability to kill a major pest, and scientists fear potentially risky farming practices are spurring the rise of insects immune to the hybrid's sophisticated weaponry.

When it was introduced in 2003, so-called Bt corn seemed like the answer to farmers' dreams: It would allow growers to bring in bountiful harvests using fewer chemicals because the corn naturally produces a toxin that poisons western corn rootworms. The hybrid was such a swift success that it and similar varieties now account for 65 percent of all U.S. corn acres — grain that ends up in thousands of everyday foods such as cereal, sweeteners and cooking oil.

But over the last few summers, rootworms have feasted on the roots of Bt corn in parts of four Midwestern states, suggesting that some of the insects are becoming resistant to the crop's pest-fighting powers.

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