Environmental risks of pesticides versus genetic engineering for agricultural pest control

Despite the application of 2.5 million tons of pesticides worldwide, more than 40% of all potential food production is lost to insect, weed, and plant pathogen pests prior to harvest. After harvest, an additional 20% of food is lost to another group of pests. The use of pesticides for pest control results in an estimated 26 million human poisonings, with 220,000 fatalities, annually worldwide. In the United States, the environmental and public health costs for the recommended use of pesticides total approximately $9 billion/yr. Thus, there is a need for alternative non-chemical pest controls, and genetic engineering (biotechnology) might help with this need. Disease and insect pest resistance to various pests has been slowly bred into crops for the past 12,000 years; current techniques in biotechnology now offer opportunities to further and more rapidly improve the non-chemical control of disease and insect pests of crops. However, relying on a single factor, like the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin that has been inserted into corn and a few other crops for insect control, leads to various environmental problems, including insect resistance and, in some cases, a threat to beneficial biological control insects and endangered insect species. A major environmental and economic cost associated with generic engineering applications in agriculture relates to the use of herbicide resistant crops (HRC). In general, HRC technology results in increased herbicide use but no increase in crop yields. The heavy use of herbicides in HRC technology pollutes the environment and can lead to weed control costs for farmers that may be 2-fold greater than standard weed control costs. Therefore, pest control with both pesticides and biotechnology can be improved for effective, safe, economical pest control.