Dr Mary Christey is the project leader for the GM brassicas that Crop and Food Research are seeking to field test in New Zealand.

In promoting the field tests, Dr Christey has been quoted in the NZ press saying there's no scientific evidence of insects becoming resistant to the Bt toxin deployed in GM plants like her GM brassicas. She said the same thing on Radio New Zealand.

However, Dr Elvira Dommisse, herself a former GM scientist at Crop and Food Research, has challenged the accuracy of Dr Christey's claims, which Dr Dommisse says do not tally with the scientific literature.

Now the plot has thickened. In 2000, Dr Christey's husband Travis Glare, also working at the Institute for Crop & Food Research, co-authored (with M O'Callaghan) a book on 'Bacillus thuringiensis: biology, ecology and safety' (Wiley, Chichester).

Dr Dommisse points out that in this book Glare and O'Callaghan say (remembering this is 2000 and a lot has happened since):

"Already about 17 insect species have become resistant to Bt in the laboratory, but only one species has shown widespread resistance in the field."

As Dr Christey keeps maintaining there's no scientific evidence of insects becoming resistant to Bt, Dr Dommisse asks, "Am I to assume that Mary Christey has no idea about her husband's or many others' publications? Or are they just a little inconvenient?"

Glare and O'Callaghan are cited on insects which have become resistant to Bt here:
www.hortnet.co.nz/publications/nzpps and search for authors Teulon and Losey (2002). The citation is on p 398 in the first paragraph of Insect Resistance Management.
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NZ researchers not telling the truth about Bt crops
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7253

1.GM problems - The Press
2.GM insect resistance debate continues - Radio New Zealand

GM WATCH COMMENT: The following letter about Crop and Food Research's proposed GM Bt brassica field trial in New Zealand, and the article on the same issue (item 2), is particularly notable because the scientist accusing the GM researchers at Crop and Food Research of deliberately misleading the public is herself a former GM researcher at Crop and Food Research.

And note that in the article, Tony Connor of Crop and Food Research actually repeats the claim that Bt crops don't carry any risk of insect resistance, even though this has always been a major concern with Bt crops and has led, as Dr Dommisse points out, to a policy of requiring the planting of non-Bt refuges when Bt crops like cotton and corn are grown.
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1.GM problems
The Press, November 4 2006

The Press headline on GM crop tests (p.1, Nov 1) reads as if the brassicas engineered with a bacterial toxin (Bt) are about to be planted. Before this happens, the application must meet the ERMA criteria for GM field trials. In order to meet the criteria, the science involved must be seen to be accurate.

Dr Mary Christey is quoted as saying that there is no scientific evidence of insects becoming resistant to the toxin in GM plants and no evidence that the toxin would harm any other organisms apart from pest caterpillars.

Actually, there are many publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals documenting insect resistance to Bt toxin when produced continuously and in relatively high concentrations by GM plants.

Similarly, there are many such publications on the harm done to non-target organisms, the most famous case being that of the monarch butterfly larva.

It is time that GM scientists made themselves familiar with all the scientific research relevant to their work.

Dr Elvira Dommisse
Christchurch
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2.GM insect resistance debate continues
Radio New Zealand, 3 November 2006
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200611031441/gm_insect_resistance_debate_continues

Debate continues over whether genetically modified crops will increase resistance within the insect population they are designed to fight.

Crop and Food Research has applied to do field trials on genetically modified brassicas - kale, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli - that produce a natural insect pesticide called bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt.

Bt kills brassicas' main enemies - the cabbage butterfly, the diamondback moth and the soybean looper.

Former Crop and Food genetic engineering scientist Elvira Dommisse says claims by the research institute that there is no risk of such trials increasing resistance among the insect populations they are targeting are appalling.

Refuges needed

Dr Dommisse says because of problems with insect resistance, Bt crops grown overseas now have to include what are known as refuges - non-Bt plants that will aid the dilution of the resistance gene. This has not been successful everywhere.

Tony Connor, a senior Crop and Food scientist who worked on a successful Bt potato trial several years ago, denies that these sorts of crops carry any risk of insect resistance.

Dr Connor says the field trials done on Bt potatoes show it would be possible to commercialise the technology and the next step would be to test them on a larger scale.

But he says the potato industry won't support any further work at the moment because of the public's negative perception of genetic modification.

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