Gone with transgenic cotton cropping in the USA

Michel Fok (1)

1 UPR SCA - Systèmes de Cultures Annuelles

The 2010 Beltwide Cotton Conferences provided a new vision of the consequences of about 15 years of widespread and uncoordinated cropping of transgenic cotton in the United States. Insect-resistant and/or herbicide-tolerant cotton varieties modified parasite complexes, namely those of insects and weeds damaging cotton crops. The Conferences have revealed that the adaptation solutions so far proposed make illusory the expectations at the launch of transgenic cotton, in terms of effective pest control, cost reduction, and antagonism between chemical and biotech methods. The USA case points out that the technical and economic sustainability of transgenic varieties must lie in a systemic and coordinated approach.

Mots clés: United States of America; biotechnologies; transgenic cotton; pest resistance; herbicide tolerance; no-tillage

Domaines: Biotechnologies; Biotechnologie; Sciences et techniques de l'agriculture

Michel Fok. Gone with transgenic cotton cropping in the USA. Biotechnologie, Agronomie, Société et Environnement / Biotechnology, Agronomy, Society and Environment, 2011, 15 (4), pp.545-552. ⟨hal-00660044⟩