Our regulatory system should facilitate development of pest control products, rather than stifle it.
Bt corn resistance: A sign of society’s stupidity?
Or just Science News reporter Janet Raloff’s?
Raloff
rails against the over-reliance on Bt corn which alarmists say is leading to pest resistance.
Raloff likens the situation to the overuse of DDT in the 1950s.
But of course, unless pests and other contagion are entirely wiped out, resistance can be expected to develop.
Raloff says that pest control technology must be carefully regulated lest resistance develop.
The solution, however, is not more regulation; it’s less.
Our regulatory system should facilitate development of pest control products, rather than stifle it.
Anyone who remembers the Bt corn wars of the 1990s knows how tough and expensive it was for Monsanto to bring the product to market.
Of course, significant resistance to Bt could eventually develop from over-reliance. But that over-reliance is caused by the reality of the expense and hassle of bringing an alternative product to market.
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Steve Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and GreenHellBlog.com and is the author of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them
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