Monsanto To Cut Off Growers Who Don’t Follow Refuge Rules

Posted by Matt Hopkins|3 March 2010

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Canada — Following a ;warning issued by the Canadian Corn Pest Coalition last week, which reported that refuge compliance rates among Bt corn growers have dropped from 80% in 2005 to 61% in 2009, the Canadian branch of St. Louis, Missouri, US-based Monsanto Co. has announced its new enforcement policy for Bt corn refuges, says Country Guide. Reports of Canadian farmers failing to properly maintain refuge areas spurred the company to implement a one-warning policy for Bt cornfields where a refuge of at least 20% must be kept. Any farmer that fails to comply will lose access to Monsanto’s licensed Bt technologies.

Fields will be inspected during random assessments, says the company. Those farmers not following acceptable configurations will receive letters explaining the importance of a properly-designed refuge and advised that their field will receive a follow-up inspection during the next growing season.

Bt corn crops must be seeded along a field’s perimeter, headlands, or in blocks or strips in the field, to ensure the survival and breeding of target insects, such as European corn borer and corn rootworm, thereby keeping the crop’s insect-resistance viable. Monsanto Canada details acceptable refuge configurations in a May 2009 fact sheet.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval of Bt corn crops — which contain a selective endotoxin protein that kills predator insects — contained a refuge requirement.