Page 20—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 4, 2000 Five-Acre Corn Club Contest lenient factor Mam Cultivation No Yes Row Spacing (inches) 30 36 38 Tillage Minimum 28 Conventional 12 No-till 18 Ridge 2 ie all club members 62 135.7 21 0 25524 4.2 6 9 Averai Average N applied (Ib/A): (does not include manure and previous crop credits) Average starter fertilizer rate (Ib/A): 173 Percentage of fields recieving a sidedress N application: Average sidedress N application: 113 pounds Percentage of fields recieving a row insecticide: Previous crop com 62 5% alfalfa/hay 33 0% soybeans 28.0% wheat.bartey 33 0% Average planting depth: 1 7 inches Com acres grown by participants: The graph below reflects the use of the soil insecticides reported in the Club n 2 8 o 6 S « I 2 Lorsban Force Leading Researchers Take Issue Regarding Genetically Engineered Crops Two prominent entomolo gists, including one from Cornell University, have warned that recent studies on the effects of genetically engineered crops have dis torted the debate about engi neered crops and that this could have “profound conse quences” for science and pub lic policy. One study was led by Cornell Assistant Entomology Professor John Losey suggesting that Bt com pollen can kill monarch but terfly larvae. In the article, “False Reports and the Ears of Man,” Cornell Entomology Professor Anthony M. Shelton and University of (Continued from Page 18) Cultural Practice Summary Entries Bu/A %H2Q Population %Down %Barren 134.5 145 5 47 6 8 137.8 124.6 115.1 135.6 133.1 139 0 120.1 133 16609 Insecticide Use Summary Aztec Product ORN BITS Adelaide, Australia, Professor Richard T. Roush urge that the public should not be swayed “by laboratory reports that, when looked at with a critical eye, may not have any reality in the field even in the laboratory.” Shelton and Roush ques tion whether the Cornell monarch butterfly study was realistic. “If I went to a movie and bought a hundred pounds of salted popcorn, because I liked salted popcorn, and then I ate the salted popcorn all at once, I’d probably die. Eating that much salted pop corn simply is not a real world situation. But if I died, it may be reported that salted popcorn was lethal,” Shelton said in an interview. 25640 24618 21 0 20.8 26251 24554 22589 21.3 21.1 20.0 25856 23814 25907 27318 21.5 20.3 21 1 17.9 52% Counter Fortress Furadan 63 66 11 7 41 0.7 79 60 101 6.9 1 7 28 4 1 66 1 1 Grain Producers Offered Guidelines For Genetically Modified Crops With resistance to prod ucts containing genetically modified ingredients in Europe and Asia rising in recent weeks, growers need to focus on how to manage the marketing of their grain. According to Dr. Neil E. Harl, professor of agriculture and economics at lowa State University, it’s especially crit ical for those producing non biotech varieties. Here’s what producers can realistically do: • State that no seed repre sented by the seed company as biotech seed was planted. • State that seed represen tative by the seed company as conventional seed was plant ed. • State that care was taken in avoiding contamina tion in bins, augers and the combine. Here’s what producers should be careful not to do: • State that the crop in question has no biotech germplasm. Announces 1999 Winners Below is a distribution of the most popular pre emergent herbicides applied to Com Club fields. • 40 2 35 c 30 0 25 1 20 I« i / ✓ //x// ✓✓✓ low is a distribution of the most popular post emergent herbicides sited to Com Club fields. Post emergent herbicide use 10 T I | | 1 l -S** 1 £

* f * & -V Product There was a wide variation in the number of trips made across Com Club fields. • State that no contamina tion has occurred from mechanical handling and storage of the crop. • State that no contamina tion has occurred from pollen drift. Biotech Produces Golden Rice Greg Roth Penn State Agronomy Associate Professor In the January 14, 2000 edition of Science magazine, a report by X. Ye et and others described the develop ment of rice plants using biotechnology that accumu late beta carotene (Vitamin A) in the grain. This development of “golden rice” is significant because more than half of the world’s population eat rice daily and rice is a poor source of many minerals and vita mins. In Southeast Asia, for example, approximately 70 percent of the children under five suffer from vitamin A de ficiency. UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) Pre-emergent herbicide use Product predicts that improved vita min A could prevent 1 to 2 million child death each year. The rice was developed by inserting three genes that encode for three different en zymes that are necessary for the biosynthesis of beta carotene in the endosperm. Variety development and field testing remain to be completed, but if the testing is successful, this could be a major development similar to the green revolution. The Rockefeller Founda tion, the Swiss Federal Insti tute of Technology, and the European Community Biotech Program funded this work. Since these are public sources of funding, the rice should be freely available to farmers who need it most. If this program is success ful, it will be a major boost to the proponents of biotechnol ogy, because it demonstrates the potential of the technol ogy to address consumer problems, even for the less developed countries.