Monday, May 17, 2010

Chinese GM Cotton increases Fruit Pest

I imagine there will be some hoopla over this new Science article, so here's the cliff notes version:




  1. Cotton bollworm was a serious pest in China and was controlled with pesticide sprays
  2. Transgenic Bt cotton was introduced as a better management strategy for bollworm
  3. In the absence of regular sprays, a minor pest (the mirid bug) has become a real problem
This isn't a genetic engineering story - it's an integrated pest management story.

Kudos to the Chinese ag scientists for being on top of this! I hope they can come up with some cheap and safe solutions for their farmers.

1 comment:

  1. In the meanwhile, after cotton prices have plummeted the past few years due to china's high production, they are now back to a reasonable price for american cotton farmers. Cotton acreage has increased for the first time in a few years.

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