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Planting GMOs Kills So Many Bugs That It Helps Non-GMO Crops (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: One of the great purported boons of GMOs is that they allow farmers to use fewer pesticides, some of which are known to be harmful to humans or other species. Bt corn, cotton, and soybeans have been engineered to express insect-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, and they have indeed been successful at controlling the crops' respective pests. They even protect the non-Bt versions of the same crop that must be planted in adjacent fields to help limit the evolution of Bt resistance. But new work shows that Bt corn also controls pests in other types of crops planted nearby, specifically vegetables. In doing so, it cuts down on the use of pesticides on these crops, as well.
Entomologists and ecologists compared crop damage and insecticide use in four agricultural mid-Atlantic states: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Their data came from the years before Bt corn was widespread (1976-1996) and continued after it was adopted (1996-2016). They also looked at the levels of the pests themselves: two different species of moths, commonly known as the European corn borer and corn earworm. They were named as scourges of corn, but their larvae eat a number of different crops, including peppers and green beans. After Bt corn was planted in 1996, the number of moths captured for analysis every night in vegetable fields dropped by 75 percent. The drop was a function of the percentage of Bt corn planted in the area and occurred even though moth populations usually go up with temperature. So the Bt corn more than counteracted the effect of the rising temperatures we've experienced over the quarter century covered by the study.
Entomologists and ecologists compared crop damage and insecticide use in four agricultural mid-Atlantic states: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Their data came from the years before Bt corn was widespread (1976-1996) and continued after it was adopted (1996-2016). They also looked at the levels of the pests themselves: two different species of moths, commonly known as the European corn borer and corn earworm. They were named as scourges of corn, but their larvae eat a number of different crops, including peppers and green beans. After Bt corn was planted in 1996, the number of moths captured for analysis every night in vegetable fields dropped by 75 percent. The drop was a function of the percentage of Bt corn planted in the area and occurred even though moth populations usually go up with temperature. So the Bt corn more than counteracted the effect of the rising temperatures we've experienced over the quarter century covered by the study.
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To GMO!
Equate to large tumors in mice... and lots of dead bugs. It just shouts "THAT SOMETHING I WANT TO INGEST!" doesn't it? :-D
explain how it is that corn that kills bugs isn't poisonous?
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Oh so a GMO with built in pesticide, allows farmers to use less pesticide but somehow we end up eating more pesticide, exactly what the fuck are they bragging about ;D.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
but don't all plants already have natural built in pest control mechanisms in some form? what is so bad about throwing stuff from one plant into another?
We already have roundup-resitant amaranth. I can't wait for BT resistant insects.
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File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Just in case anyone thought that a bug-free world would be a wonderful thing.
It doesn't matter how many studies there are that show the good effects of GMO, people will still oppose them, and mostly for irrational reasons. Furthermore, they will ignore the times when natural foods are harmful or when non-gmo has ended up with poisonous foods. Again, for mostly irrational reasons.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
but it doesn't kill all of them :(
[($)]
...when even the insects dont want it.
I demand mandatory labelling of GMO food, so I can opt out.
Thank you in advance.
Nice to hear that has been proven already.
What’s Causing the Sharp Decline in Insects, and Why It Matters
Where have all the insects gone?
The difference between GMO and creating a crop that has defenses that kill insets that also affect human diets. We can GMO a crop naturally to make it work better without hurting our body's ability to process the food.
All other aspects are secondary or non-existent wiped under the table.
It cannot be what may not be is the policy.
The minds of the actors in this game are convoluted and corrupt.
Good luck!
Killing bugs isn't a good thing.
That it kill bugs in a large area isn't positive.
Most people don't realize there are dozens of gluten free grains available, but mostly unpopular due to differences in the meal and dough they produce which are considered less palatable or more difficult to work with than traditional glutenized wheat.
Was having a discussion at a plant exchange meeting about this with a guy with a gluten allergy, having started growing my own sorghum in a colder region than it is normally grown. They actually can grow quite well further nore if you are in an area that doesn't frost much anymore. Having only recieved 2 weeks of frost this year I was able to overwinter naked sorghum plants and only lost about 1/4 of the current canes. A number of the dead canes are showing new shoot growth from their rootstock and the canes secondary growth. Given that my test bed of a half dozen plants yielded a few pounds worth of grain without fertilizer or more than the bare minimum of water, it has turned out to be a hardy and modestly yielding crop with few serious pests in my region. Furthermore it can be used as feedstock for animals, food for people, or compost for future plants. The only bad part about it is the fibers can be sharp so make sure you wear gloves and use sturdy shears when cutting it so you don't accidentally injure yourself. Slicing up your hands with a bunch of paper-like grass cuts is never fun and can put your activities on hold for a could of days while you can't hold anything without reopening your injuries :)
How could we possibly NOT foresee all the effects of planting crops that blanket kills whole families of species?
So the GMO crops succeed at helping neighboring non-GMO crops because... the GMO crops keep spreading into the non-GMO crops, thus making an originally-non-GMO crop gradually become a GMO-contaminated crop... and the benefits of GMO have now been measured in originally-non-GMO.
This is not news, per se. This is the well-known behavior of GMO crops (spreading beyond their original boundaries) so I give this PR spin 9/10 points.
The number of any insect dropped by 75% which is a big problem for plant fertilization and ecology. It's not specific to corn pests. "Buzzing meadows" are a thing of the past.
In other words, we expect you to pay up even if you don't use them.
At the bottom of the
Well when you considering that "Flying Insects Have Been Disappearing Over the Past Few Decades, Study Shows" and that "Even Common Species Are Becoming Rare", this may not such good news after all.
We poisoned the food instead. But don't worry, they say this poison is friendly. Friendly to us, our bodies, our guys, our microbiome, our unborn children, to plants and insects we need to survive, to our ecology.
Like Casper, the friendly ghost.
(for varying values of Monsanto)
They already do it when the seeds drift.
If they can show the benefit of the GE crop has drifted they will assign a value to that benefit and send a lawyer and an invoice.
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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
No that is not what TFS or TFA claimed and nor what is happening. The GMO crops kept the population of pests in control which helped the non GMO crops (since the number of pests is lower). There have not been a single instance of a GMO crop spreading it's modified genes to other crops, so how you can say that it's a "well-known behaviour" is quite strange, one could almost say that it's a lie.
We should farm bugs tbh
nixtamalization
Used to be able to eat it as a kid, now 45, my stomach cant tolerate corn.. Same thing with wheat.. I think all these 'safe' modifications are doing much more harm to humans than what we're told...
Some of the bugs are a necessary part of the ecosystem. Additionally, you can no longer grow normal crops in soil into which many GMOs have been planted. When enough cross-pollination occurs, the organic crops will likely not survive, and they are far superiot to GMOs nutritionally. This post is millennial science, and I honestly thought we were moving beyond that with the Theranos depantsing. I guess not. Once more with feeling: with GMOs, it isn't *just about the produce*.
None of you writing these types of posts are old enough yet or have been exposed to enough to have witnessed any consequences in your lives. Sorry, but you are just too green, and your arrogance prevents you from heeding the warnings or wisdom of others. It's why you repeatedly fail in life.
Addendum: for the GMO corporations, it's about *profit* not sustainability. Only a fool would believe otherwise.
The European corn borer damage data for this study were derived from control plots of pesticide efficacy trials that were part of other unrelated studies funded by various organizations and companies including DuPont Pioneer, Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto, Bayer CropScience, and Syngenta. The pesticide efficacy trials were unrelated to this study, and these companies did not provide funding to support this work, but may be affected financially by publication of this paper and have funded other work by G.P.D., T.P.K., K.H., J.W., and W.D.H.
Not judging the GMO debate here. This could be linked to the problem with giant monoculture. Of course with only one species grown on large areas, the respective pest will strive. Here we have multiple species, engineered to be nearly the same except for bug resistance, so the bug population is kept under control. Before we had smaller areas, with completely different species, some of those who also did not share the same bugs and the result was the same: more bug diversity, which also means less of the bad one. I think it has been known for some time now that growing multiple, different species will reduce pests proliferation.
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You hypothesize, you experiment, and then comes the bit that a lot of people struggle with - you LEARN. And then, the even harder bit, you don't repeat the mistakes.
GMO, as practiced in the early days, was a disastrous mistake.
GMO, as practiced now, is not peer-reviewed, is patented to prevent testing of claims, and is wrapped in trade secrets. That puts it closer to witchcraft than science.
GMO, as it could be done, would be properly and independently tested, peer-reviewed and would not involve non-specific toxins. Ideally, it wouldn't involve toxins at all. You can always increase yield and plant height. The former reduces the fraction of the crop lost and the latter reduces crop lost by weeds and ground pests. Most early varieties of wheat and corn grew much taller, so it's gene replacement therapy not GMO.
Oh, and those buggers can get off my lawn!
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Sterile GMO bug killing plants YOU DO NOT EAT which exist solely to kill pests! ,etc.)
No contamination, corps get their money replanting without banning sane farming (seed collection, replanting, not infecting the genepool
Time for the rodent eating venus fly trap mixed with snake DNA!
How about a spider plant-- made with real spider DNA?
Scarecrow plants... ah, no... we didn't put in human DNA... (hey, did that plant just move towards us?)
Instead of wasting efforts to hide harm done to our foods by biohacking analog systems we don't hardly understand at any level, we can just make some seriously fatal plants that get the job done! NO NEED to seriously regulate them-- because nobody eats them except pests!
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"it cuts down on the use of pesticides on these crops, as well."
Someone doesn't know how farmers use preventative chemicals.
Planting BT GMOs kills most Moths and Butterflies in the area around the field, as well as in it.
Moths and butterflies are pollinators, so killing most of them means killing most of their pollinated plants.
Many pollinated plants have very specific pollinators, so killing the moths and butterflies kills the pollinated plants.
Many times, if the species is not wiped out, the bugs will develop resistance in the survivors.
So eventually some of the bugs could come back slowly, in areas not inclement to the bugs.
Another words, the bugs may not die out in the optimum environments, and then spread back out.
This process can be very slow.
They die out elsewhere because they are already weakened by the pesticide.
In the meantime, foods are eliminated from our diet.
People could wind u starving in some areas because of the GMOs.
Other GMOs are resistant to pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides used on them.
This means that stronger spraying can be done on these crops.
The stronger spraying is also killing many pollinators like bees, (honey bees, solitary species, bumblebees); pollen wasps (Masarinae); ants; flies including bee flies, hoverflies and mosquitoes; lepidopterans, both butterflies and moths; and flower beetles. Vertebrates, mainly bats and birds, but also some non-bat mammals (monkeys, lemurs, possums, rodents) and some lizards pollinate certain plants. Among the pollinating birds are hummingbirds, honeyeaters and sunbirds with long beaks; they pollinate a number of deep-throated flowers.
Die-offs of bees and hummingbirds are already occurring.
Many food crops require pollinators, or GMO seeds.
Not good for the world.
wake up and hold your nose
Non-GMO Crops."
Right up to the point that those GMO plants get into next-door Farmer Brown's crops and he uses the seeds next year as he normally would. Then the Monsanto lawyers descend upon his farm like a swarm of locusts. And so ends Farmer Brown.
explain how it is that corn that kills bugs isn't poisonous?
Bt toxin is toxic (duh), either by spraying or by genetically modifying the corn. The advantage of genetically modified is that you don't have to spray it. Human lung tissue is very susceptible to the action of the protein crystal of Bt. And use of Bt represents an occupation hazard to farm workers.
Now this might surprise you, but spraying Bt is considered organic farming. Pretty much every "organic" cabbage has Bt on it, and every organic tomato has the related Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) on it.
We don't think the impact on human health is very big for ingestion of Bt, at least we're having trouble measuring the impact. Small amounts of exposure seem to do nothing. We don't fully know what long term persistent exposure to Bt does on the human gut. On certain caterpillars the affect of Bt on their gut is immediately obvious, and the caterpillars die. On other insects like honeybees we don't see the same results from exposure to Bt, and it appears to be safe. (although that's complex to answer fully)
Anyone that is going after GMO foods like Bt corn but at the same time in support of current organic farming practices are talking out of both sides of their mouth.
BT corn planted adjacent to non-corn crops caused moth numbers to decline in the area of non-corn crops. it sounds great to suggest that BT corn was infecting non-GMO corn, which there's evidence of, but that is hardly what the article was writing about unless you're seriously suggesting that BT corn is capable of cross-breeding with peppers and green beans in the wild.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
The use of DDT to control Malaria also save millions of lives.
As to GMOs being natural and there for safe, that is also nonsense. Long ago a bug resistant celery was produced using traditional plant breeding techniques. Worked great, except if slightly bruised it produced a lot of toxin that ended up killing a few people.
Pray tell who is the stupid SOB who wrote this, or decided to run it.
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The down side is that it also kills the good insects, like Honeybees.
BT and neo-nicotinoid-laced crops hurt the very pollinators we rely on.
Pollinators like Honeybees are heavily relied on for nearly half of what we eat in the USA.
It is indeed a dilemma: How does one help the crops w/o hurting the good bugs?
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
If it kills bugs and doesn't need pesticides, just what do you think that will do to humans? Sterilize them, cause deformities, kill them? Oh, probably all three. NO thank you!