Episode 48: Pesticides, Herbicides, and Genetics with Dr. Charles Benbrook

What Doesn't Kill You

This week on Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is geeking out with Dr. Charles Benbrook. Dr. Benbrook is a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University. He is the program leader of “Measure to Manage: Farm and Food Diagnostics for Sustainability and Health.” His career has focused on developing science-based systems for evaluating the public health, environmental, and economic impacts of changes in agricultural systems, biotechnology, and policy. He has worked extensively on pesticide use and risk assessment, and the development of bio-intensive Integrated pest Management. He played an important role in the evolution of the 1996 “Food Quality Protection Act,” and has produced multiple reports on agricultural biotechnology. Tune into this episode to hear about herbicide-resistant crops, and whether or not they will be a solution to extravagant herbicide usage. Learn the differences between GMO crops and hybridized plants. Are resistant insect populations a worry for farmers in the United States? Hear about some commonly used herbicides, and their health and environmental concerns. Click here for a study concerning toxicity and Roundup-resistance. This program has been sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.

“This largest group of GE crops that have been planted around the world since 1996, they really don’t have anything to do with increased yields. In fact, the evidence suggests a small yield drag as a result of the genetic transformation that renders them tolerant to applications of this Roundup herbicide…” [4:55]

“I’m just trying to keep the industry honest. You will still find claims by so-called experts that today’s GE crops are reducing pesticide use. It’s just not true!” [32:00]

— Dr. Charles Benbrook on Straight, No Chaser