STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann,

UNL Extension Educator,

Webster County March 25, 2011 Edition Gosh, where do I start? People ask me all the time about where I get my information and how do you find enough stuff to write about each week. I laugh and say that you would be surprised at where get my ideas and what direction that I will go each week. A good place of course is the local coffee shop. You get a pretty good pulse of what is going on in the agriculture world. Sometimes an article I read in a farm magazine or an email or perhaps an ag related blog sparks the flow of information into a what I hope becomes a useable product. Believe me there is never a shortage of material with so much that is going on around us concerning the agriculture industry. The problem lies in which direction do I go? I have been keeping up on the drama around Genetically Engineered (GE) crops and debates concerning organic farming, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) fears, and more recently the release of Round-up Ready (RR) alfalfa. When Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced his decision to approve genetically modified alfalfa; a modified corn to be made into ethanol; and limited approval to genetically engineered sugar beets, I expected that things would maybe get back to normal. But as sports broadcaster Lee Corso says “Not so fast my friend.” There have been more shots lobbed across the bow of the USDA. I heard about a speaker making the rounds of Winter and Spring agronomic meetings across the Midwest making claims that the widespread use of glyphosate (Round-up) is causing negative impacts on soil and plants as well as possibly animal and human health. I heard farmers talking about this at pesticide applicator meetings and at coffee. I have since been reading about it in farm magazines and on the internet, and have had a lot of fun reading blogs from both sides of the debate. It certainly has ignited some embers into blazes in the discussion of GMO’s and GE crops and whether or not they should be a part of our crop protection arsenal. Dr. Don Huber, professor emeritus at Purdue University has presented information that has portrayed devastating consequences due to the widespread use of glyphosate and glyphosate resistant crops. In particular, Huber, who is known as one of the nation’s senior soil scientists, alerted the federal government to a newly discovered organism that may have the potential to cause infertility and spontaneous abortion in farm animals, raising significant concerns about human health. Huber has based his talks on a review of data that he has obtained that says it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn, which suggests a link with the RR gene, or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears to be new to science! Huber explained that the search for the new pathogen was instigated by the increase of cattle infertility and unexplained cases of spontaneous abortion in several western states in the past several years. The common denominator, he said, appears to be the prevalence of this new pathogen that can only be viewed at 36,000 times magnification. Fears were increased when this pathogen was also supposedly found in mothers who had recently miscarried. He believes the appearance and prevalence of the unnamed organism may be related to the nations’ over reliance on Roundup and/or to the genetically engineered Roundup-Ready crops. This is not a new controversy, but many statements released in recent weeks by groups opposed to the use of genetically modified (GM) crops have claimed that glyphosate use and Roundup Ready technology will be disastrous and that glyphosate has damaged crop production by decreasing nutrient availability to plants, reducing nutrient content of food and livestock feed, and increasing plant susceptibility to disease. There also are claims that glyphosate is contributing to an increase in more than 40 plant diseases that may also affect human and animal health, and that its use enhances fungal diseases and creates problems with manganese uptake and use. Dr. Huber even crafted a letter to Secretary Vilsack calling on the federal government to immediately stop deregulation of roundup ready crops, particularly roundup ready alfalfa. I have a copy of the letter if any of you want to read it. Dr. Huber believes we’ve reached the tipping point toward a potential disaster with the safety of our food supply. The abuse, or over use of Roundup, is having profoundly bad consequences in the soil. He thinks that the appearance of this new pathogen may be a signal that we’ve gone too far. I must point out however that Huber admitted that he could be wrong about this pathogen’s link to Roundup, but said that much further study is needed for that final assessment. But in the meantime, he says it’s grossly irresponsible of the government to allow Roundup Ready alfalfa, which would bring the widespread spraying of Roundup to millions of more acres and introduce far more Roundup into the food supply. It is important to recognize that there is little data published in refereed journals to support these claims. Many researchers, including at Purdue University http://www.btny.purdue.edu/weedscience/2011/GlyphosatesImpact11.pdf say that the data has been taken greatly out of context to support the accusations, and evidence to support these claims has never been presented to, nor evaluated by, peer-review in the scientific community, so are being refuted. Their final statement summarizes the available evidence of the impact glyphosate and GMO crops have on plant health, “We encourage crop producers, agribusiness personnel, and the general public to speak with University Extension personnel before making changes in crop production practices that are based on sensationalist claims instead of facts.” We have learned to lean on Roundup Ready crops pretty hard. We might ask ourselves – What if Dr. Huber is right? The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home