【译文】
2011年8月11日，星期四
专家：植物、动物问题要归咎于转基因生物
作者：Jefferson Dodge
星期三县里开了有关空地上的转基因作物问题的政策会议，这是次期待已久的会议，其中一位准备在会上作证的专家说，由于除草剂使用的增加，科学家发现植物和动物正在出现新的、令人警觉的类型。
Michael McNeill是位农学家，在爱荷华州的阿尔戈纳有自己的农业咨询有限公司。1969年在爱荷华州立大学获得定量遗传学和植物病理学专业的博士学位。从1983年起就一直担任作物顾问。他是被县里的官员邀请在8月10日的会议上作证的三位专家之一，这是个农田政策咨询小组（CPAG）会议。
农田政策咨询小组，自二月起就一直在开会，在县里的管理公园和空地的工作人员在开发诸如县里的地上可以种些什么东西这类的新的农田政策时候，就靠农田政策咨询小组来反馈人们的意见。这个小组上次开会只是稍稍涉及了敏感的转基因生物议题；8月10日的这次会议却是从头到尾都是在忙这个课题了。
在会前，McNeill告诉Boulder周刊说，他和他的同行正看到由使用草甘膦而导致的严重的、负面的影响，草甘膦是除草剂的主要的组成部分。（孟山都，生产除草剂的公司，由于用更换作物的基因的方法使得作物可以抗除草剂，从而导致了争议。）
McNeill说在这个国家的中西部和其他的地区，如路易斯安那州和密西西比州，水麻，大猪草，藜属植物，天鹅绒杂草由于在使用了有毒的除草剂之后存了下，从而产生了基因突变，通过自然选择，成了抗除草剂的杂草了，这些杂草成功地存活下来而且疯狂地再生。
问题是，农民们自然的反应是对作物使用更多的除草剂，这种做法会产生有害的影响，McNeill说。
“明智地使用除草剂，会产生有用的效果，但是就像任何事情一样，要是滥用了，就会产生负面的影响，”他说。
McNeill解释说草甘膦是络合剂，这就意味着它会锁住对植物有用的微粒，像铁，钙，锰和锌。
“你给植物喷洒草甘膦，就像在给它传染艾滋病，”他说。
按照McNeill的观点，农民们增加除草剂的用量实际上是在伤害他们的作物，因为这会杀死土壤中的作物需要的微量营养物，这些研究的进展情况都已经由该领域的全国的著名专家以文件的形式收录在数篇科学论文中。他说，例如，在使用了这些有毒物质后，有害的寄生生物如镰胞菌，疫病菌，腐霉菌的数量呈上升趋势，而有益的真菌以及帮助植物把矿物质分解为可用状态的其他有机物的数量却成下降趋势。
他解释说过度使用草甘膦就意味着氧化剂呈上升趋势，造成植物不能使用的氧化物，这会导致植物低产和更高的对疾病的敏感性。
McNeill承认孟山都会轻易地找到可以杀死这些新型的抗除草剂杂草的新的化学药品，但同样，杂草也会轻易地再找到一条可以绕过新的化学药品的道路。
“这是大自然的植物育种过程，”他说“这非常普遍，所以成了一个严重的问题。”
McNeill说这样状况会导致大豆的“突然死亡综合症”，就是意味着大豆在其进入繁殖阶段，死亡的比率增加。他补充说，玉米发生Goss枯萎的几率更高，自20世纪70年代以来，这就已经成为科罗拉多州的一个难题，而研究表明，草甘膦导致了两种疾病多发。
而且，根据McNeill的看法，问题还不只局限于植物，它正向食用这些植物的动物延伸。
他和他的同事不断发现，以转基因作物作饲料喂养的牛和猪发生不育的几率和发生早期流产的几率更高。他补充说，以可疑作物为饲料喂养的家禽表现出生育率下降的趋势。
为大学，联邦政府和私人公司工作的McNeill说，他对他的农民客户建议轮换使用化学药品--或者就根本不用化学药品。然而这会加大劳动密集型的程度， 有机耕种的农夫一般会割下杂草而不用除草剂。他说他调查了160，000英亩的传统农田和5，000到6,000英亩的有机耕作的土地。
“我的客户就是我的农民，我要为他们找到最佳方案，”他说。“而我的客户是消费农民产品的消费者，我要为他们找到最好的产品。”
McNeill把除草剂在科学上最终的遭遇和另一种有毒物质做了比较：就如DDT最初被赞美为奇迹般的杀虫剂而后来却遭到禁用一样，研究人员正开始发现草甘膦的严重问题。
“一些议题随着技术而开始出现了，在我们开始使用这些技术之前我们可能要做更多的研究，”他说，“这是个活动得目标。”
另外两位受邀参加农田政策咨询小组会议的专家，来自Crop Quest的Kent Davis和来自科罗拉多州立大学的Phillip Westra，在截稿前没有回电话。
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
【完】
【原文链接和文本】
http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-6211-expert-gmos-to-blame-for-problems-in-plants-animals.html
Thursday, August 11,2011
Expert: GMOs to blame for problems in plants, animals
By Jefferson Dodge
One of the experts set to testify at Wednesday’s long-awaited meeting about the county’s policy for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on open space says scientists are seeing new, alarming patterns in plants and animals due to increased use of the herbicide Roundup.
Michael McNeill is an agronomist who owns Ag Advisory Ltd. in Algona, Iowa . He received his Ph.D. in quantitative genetics and plant pathology from Iowa State University in 1969 and has been a crop consultant since 1983. He was among three experts invited by county officials to testify at the Aug. 10 meeting of the Cropland Policy Advisory Group (CPAG).
CPAG, which has been meeting since February, serves as a sounding board for the county’s parks and open space staff as they develop a new cropland policy on matters like what may be grown on county land. The group has only touched briefly on the hot-button GMO issue in its past meetings; the Aug. 10 meeting was devoted entirely to the subject.
McNeill told Boulder Weekly before the meeting that he and his colleagues in the industry are seeing serious, negative effects produced by the use of glyphosate, which is the primary ingredient in Roundup weed killer. (Monsanto, the company that makes Roundup, has generated controversy by genetically altering crops to make them resistant to the herbicide.)
McNeill says that in the Midwest and other areas of the country, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, weeds like water hemp, giant ragweed, lamb’s quarter and velvet weed have become Roundup resistant through natural selection, due to a particular genetic mutation that survived the poison and therefore reproduced successfully and wildly.
The problem is, farmers’ natural reaction has been to simply apply more Roundup to their crops, which is having deleterious impacts, McNeill says.
“Used judiciously, it can be a useful product, but as with anything, if you abuse it, it can have negative effects,” he says.
McNeill explains that glyphosate is a chelating agent, which means it clamps onto molecules that are valuable to a plant, like iron, calcium, manganese and zinc.
“When you spray glyphosate on a plant, it’s like giving it AIDS,” he says.
The farmers’ increased use of Roundup is actually harming their crops, according to McNeill, because it is killing micronutrients in the soil that they need, a development that has been documented in several scientific papers by the nation’s leading experts in the field. For example, he says, harmful fungi and parasites like fusarium, phytopthora and pythium are on the rise as a result of the poison, while beneficial fungi and other organisms that help plants reduce minerals to a usable state are on the decline.
He explains that the overuse of glyphosate means that oxidizing agents are on the rise, creating oxides that plants can’t use, leading to lower yields and higher susceptibility to disease.
McNeill acknowledges that Monsanto could simply find a new chemical that kills the newly resistant weeds, but the weeds will simply find a way around it again.
“It’s mother nature’s plant breeding program,” he says. “It’s very widespread, and it’s a serious problem.”
McNeill says the situation is causing “sudden death syndrome” in soybeans, which means they are dying at increased rates when they go into their reproductive phase. He adds that corn is showing a higher incidence of Goss’s wilt, which has been a problem in Colorado since the early 1970s, and
studies show that glyphosate causes a rise in both diseases.
And the problems are not limited to plants, it’s extending to the animals that eat them, according to McNeill.
He says he and his colleagues are seeing a higher incidence of infertility and early-term abortion in cattle and hogs that are fed on GMO crops. He adds that poultry fed on the suspect crops have been exhibiting reduced fertility rates.
McNeill, who works with universities, the federal government and private companies, says his advice to his farmer clients is to rotate chemicals — or don’t use them at all. While it is more labor-intensive, organic farmers usually cut their weeds as an alternative to herbicides. He says he consults for about 160,000 acres of conventional farmland and 5,000 to 6,000 acres of organically farmed land.
“My clients are my farmers, and I want what’s best for them,” he says. “And my clients are the consumers who consume the farmers products, and I want what’s best for them.”
McNeill compares the Roundup situation to the way science eventually caught up to another poison: Just as DDT was initially hailed as a miracle pesticide and later banned, researchers are beginning to discover serious problems with glyphosate.
“Some issues are starting to arise with technologies that probably needed more research before we started using them,” he says. “It’s a moving target.”
The other two experts invited to the CPAG meeting, Kent Davis of Crop Quest and Phillip Westra of Colorado State University , did not return calls by press time.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com