Technical translation
In my spare time in France I have done some work as a translator. In 2012, I completed my largest translation project to date: a 60,000-word official public document for INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) on the subject of herbicide-tolerant plant varieties (HTVs).
HTVs are crop varieties developed to show resistance to herbicides. The most common HTVs worldwide belong to Monsanto's Roundup-Ready® line: varieties of maize, soybeans, cotton, oilseed rape and sugar beet tolerant to glyphosate. These varieties have all been developed using transgenic techniques (they are GMOs), and hence are prohibited for cultivation within the European Union. Meanwhile, companies such as BASF have developed non-transgenic HTVs that avoid the EU ban.
The legal status, agronomic utility and other impacts of these new varieties is a focus of public debate within France and the EU more broadly. For this reason, the French ministries of agriculture and ecology requested INRA and CNRS (the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) to study the question and produce a report detailing their findings.
HTVs are crop varieties developed to show resistance to herbicides. The most common HTVs worldwide belong to Monsanto's Roundup-Ready® line: varieties of maize, soybeans, cotton, oilseed rape and sugar beet tolerant to glyphosate. These varieties have all been developed using transgenic techniques (they are GMOs), and hence are prohibited for cultivation within the European Union. Meanwhile, companies such as BASF have developed non-transgenic HTVs that avoid the EU ban.
The legal status, agronomic utility and other impacts of these new varieties is a focus of public debate within France and the EU more broadly. For this reason, the French ministries of agriculture and ecology requested INRA and CNRS (the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) to study the question and produce a report detailing their findings.
Herbicide-tolerant plant varietiesThe "Collective Scientific Expertise" process resulted in the publication of a 430-page report (available only in French), an 80-page summary and a 10-page synopsis:
M. Beckert, Y. Dessaux, C. Charlier, H. Darmency, C. Richard, I. Savini, and A. Tibi, (editors), 2011. Herbicide-tolerant plant varieties: Agronomic, environmental and socio-economic effects. Collective scientific expertise: Summary of the experts’ report. Translated by Laura Sayre. CNRS-INRA (France), 81 pp. For the original documents in French, click here >> Variétés végétales tolérantes aux herbicides. |
Banner photo by Laura B. Sayre.