© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Scientists say pesticide not fending off corn rootworm

jungmoon
/
Flickr

Insect scientists say biotech corn is losing its ability to fend off a major insect pest known as the corn rootworm.  The scientists say continued widespread use of genetically-modified corn will only make the problem worse.Scientists say the corn rootworm is becoming resistant to Bt corn, a crop genetically-engineered to protect against the pest.

Earlier this week, 22 scientists wrote a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency expressing their concerns. University of Illinois insect behaviorist Joseph Spencer was one of them.

He says farmers can't just rely on a single pest management strategy.

“We can't rely on just Bt. We need to think about using a mix of techniques to assure that we can protect the corn that we're growing in the United States,” Spencer said.

Monsanto, which makes Bt corn, says less than 0.2 percent of the acres planted with its corn variety experienced pest damage last year.

Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug while writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio pieces at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.
Related Content