Study shows herbicide tolerant cotton has no adverse environmental impacts

This article was originally published on germination.ca, written by Ally Roden.

While genetically modified herbicide tolerant (GMHT) crops are the most widely adopted GM crops across the globe, the potential ecological and environmental risks have attracted attention and controversy over the last two decades.

A study published in the Journal of Cotton Research set out to investigate the potential effects of GMHT crops on arthropod communities.

The two-year investigation revealed that GMHT cotton did not exhibit any harmful effects on the arthropod community. In fact, the study found that the GMHT crop had the same abundance and diversity of insects as its near-isogenic line counterpart.

Researchers planted the GMHT cotton variety GGK2, known to contain glyphosate tolerance, and its non-GMHT counterpart, K312. The crops were planted in 2019 and again in 2020 at an experimental station located in Anyang, Henan, China.

The arthropod composition on each plot was similar, with a high similarity among the arthropod communities.

“There was no obvious difference in abundance, diversity indexes of arthropod communities between GMHT cotton variety GGK2 and its near-isogenic variety K312 under the small-scale planting regime,” stated the study.

Despite the controversy, many researchers and officials believe that the pros outweigh the cons when concerning GMHT crops.

“Herbicide tolerant (HT) crops offer farmers a vital tool in fighting weeds and are compatible with no-till methods, which help preserve topsoil. They give farmers the flexibility to apply herbicides only when needed, to control total input of herbicides and to use herbicides with preferred environmental characteristics,” shared a publication by The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

The results of the study provide additional knowledge when evaluating the potential ecological and environmental risks of GMHT crops.