Controversial Trial of Genetically Modified Wheat Ends In Disappointment

sciencehabit writes: A controversial GM wheat trial has failed after more than £2 million of public money was spent protecting it from GM opponents. Researchers had hoped that the wheat modified to produce a warning pheromone would keep aphids away and attract their natural enemies, reducing the need for insecticides. Despite showing promise in the laboratory, the field trial failed to show any effect. “If you make a transgenic plant that produces that alarm continuously, it’s not going to work,” ecologist Marcel Dicke of Wageningen University in the Netherlands says. “You have a plant crying wolf all the time, and the bugs won’t listen to it any longer.”

Comments

Bash transgenic foods all you want

[rodrigoandrade]

But don't complain when you buy whole foods that cost twice as much.

Transgenics are cheaper to produce, because crops grow faster, require fewer pesticides, yield better/bigger products, etc.

There's yet to me any serious study that proves that trangenic foods kill, cause cancer, kills babies, etc, because the technology is so new and groundbreaking.