United Kingdom and Germany
May 14, 2004
Source:
Plant
Biotechnology Journal via
Monsanto UK
A new peer-reviewed study in Plant Biotechnology Journal reports
that herbicide tolerant sugar beets would be less harmful to the
environment and human health than growing conventional sugar
beets. This was largely a result of reduced overall pesticide
use in herbicide tolerant sugar beets, which resulted in lower
emissions related to herbicide manufacture, transport and
application in the field.
This study compares the impacts of conventional
and herbicide tolerant sugar beet production systems in Europe.
The authors, from the University of Reading, present results of
a life cycle assessment (LCA) for sugar beets. LCA is a
recognized, objective method for assessing environmental and
human health impacts associated with a product or process and is
conducted in accordance with recognized international standards
(Intl. Org. for Standardization, ISO 14040).
The researchers used a systematic approach to
identify environmental burdens and human health issues (eg;
energy use, global warming, ozone depletion, smog, particulates,
carcinogenicity) and identified how conventional and herbicide
tolerant production systems differed. The full article,
Environmental and human health impacts of growing genetically
modified herbicide tolerant sugar beet: a life-cycle assessment,
published in Plant Biotechnology Journal, is available online at
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7652.2004.00076.x/full/
The authors compared three conventional sugar
beet production systems, two used in the UK and one in Germany
(UKa, UKb, GER), and compared them to production systems
expected for herbicide tolerant sugar beets in the UK and
Germany (Ht). The herbicide tolerant sugar beet typically
required fewer spray applications, less herbicide and no
mechanical weeding. This is the first time that LCA has been
used to assess the impacts of new agricultural products and by
nature their analysis is preliminary in scope. Different
herbicide programmes for sugar beets in other world areas may
produce different results. However, the results of this
preliminary study suggest that Roundup Ready sugar beet
production in the EU could reduce harmful environmental and
human health impacts.
Copyright 2004
Plant
Biotechnology Journal All Rights Reserved |
