Pestilence Of Biblical Proportions Quietly Brewing

Transgenic corn hybrids, such as Bt corn, are engineered to produce toxins that target specific insect pests. Planting refuges of non-Bt corn near Bt crops slows the development of Bt-resistance in insects. This year, Nebraska farmers planted 79 percent of their corn crop to genetically modified varieties. That was up from 76 percent last year. State farmers planted 9.1 million acres of corn this year. Steffey said because non-Bt corn hybrids sometimes yield less than Bt hybrids, some farmers are doing away with refuges altogether a violation of federal law. These practices will increase the rate at which target insects become resistant, he said. "Some corn growers are looking at short-term gains and ignoring long-term consequences. This is a mistake repeating itself from the 1960s," he said. Steffey said some growers take the new technologies, such as transgenic corn, for granted, believing that the problems of resistance will not arise with these new products. But resistance is a normal, ecological adaptation to any selective stress, Steffey said. "We have an insect, the western corn rootworm, that became resistant to crop rotation," he said. "That made us aware of what we're dealing with: This insect is plastic, genetically, and can adapt to a lot of things."