Andrew Apel wrote:
>Compare Iowa to Oaxaca
>Colleagues, As you already know, the winner of the 2002 National Corn >Growers Association (NCGA) Corn Yield Contest is again Francis Childs

Normally, I do not respond to any of the messages that I receive from Agbioview, but I simply could not resist in this case because it is a highly simplified and disinformative piece of biased information. it simply ignores (I hope out of ignorance rather than commission) several well known (for anyone willing to scratch beneath the surface) facts,

e.g.: Mexico has been capable of feeding itself for many years (although corn has been imported recently, this has more to do with price differentials than lack of capacity). Yieldgard1 corn has no use in Mexico--nor would lead to 27 metric ton/ha yields--because corn borers are not the main, nor a key problem; fall armyworms and grubs are more important, though insect pests are not a key problem--the main problems are socioeconomic (ask an Iowa farmer to produce even one ton/ha on a rocky hillside without fertilizers and water--water and nutrient deficiency tolerant seed would be more useful than borer-resistant seed; fortunately, at least a few people are working on this)

The comparison you make has nothing to do with biotech versus non-biotech stances...would Yieldgard by itself take a Mexican farmer from 1 ton/ha to 27 ton/ha??? the comparison that is made ignores something that we as Americans frequently take for granted: cheap energy. the information that is presented would be less biased if you also included the energy inputs required to produce 27 ton/ha in Iowa versus 1 ton/ha in Oaxaca.

I could go on and on, but I presume that you have gotten the idea. please present more complete information in your future messages. Unfortunately, Agbioview is using the tactics - disinformation and manipulation - at it criticizes of others...

I would hope that in the future Agbioview would be more careful and fair with the information it makes available.

- Julio S. Bernal, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX; http://bclaboratory.tamu.edu/

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