The following is an excerpt.
The issue of pest resistance to insect resistant Bt crops receives regular media attention, partly because anti-biotechnology lobbies use it as an argument to vilify GM crops. The German NGO testbiotech, in a recently published report commissioned by Member of the European Parliament Martin Häusling of the Green Party, argues that because of potential resistance development, GM crops should not be allowed for cultivation in the EU:
There must be no large-scale, commercial cultivation of GE herbicide-tolerant or insecticide-producing crops. Such crop cultivation is unsustainable and will lead to a ‘race’ to step up their cultivation.
The idea that a particular technology should be banned if it cannot be used forever is dangerously misguided. The benefits obtained by millions of farmers thanks to Bt crops have been very real, perhaps most notably India but also in the European Union. Without GM, food prices would have been higher, environmental externalities more severe and health problems more common.
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