New threat found in GMOs.
While the U.S. moves forward with its use of genetically modified organisms, Canada and Europe continue their skepticism of GMOs. The Independent, a newspaper read in the United Kingdom, recently ran a story by their environment editor citing new research concerning the use of genetically modified grown crops. The article, written by Geoffrey Lean and titled GM 'Pest-Killing' Crops, has the subtitle Genetically modified crops specially engineered to kill pests in fact nourish them, startling new research has revealed.
Apparently, one of the "benefits" of genetic engineering in agriculture is that the crops are bred with their owned pesticide. It is unfortunate, says Lean, that "Biotech companies have added genes from a naturally occurring poison, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is widely used as a pesticide by organic farmers." He adds, "Drawbacks have already emerged, with pests becoming resistant to the toxin. Environmentalists say that resistance develops all the faster because the insects are constantly exposed to it in the plants, rather than being subject to occasional spraying."
In a twist of science, Lean has learned from new research ,YÏ by scientists at Imperial College London and the Universidad Simon Rodrigues in Caracas, Venezuela ,YÏ which suggests "that pests can actually use the poison as a food and that the crops, rather than automatically controlling them, can actually help them to thrive," (from article).
According to Lean, "They fed resistant larvae of the diamondback moth ,YÏ an increasingly troublesome pest in the southern US and in the tropics ,YÏ on normal cabbage leaves and ones that had been treated with a Bt toxin. The larvae eating the treated leaves grew much faster and bigger ,YÏ with a 56 per cent higher growth rate."
Lean also reports, "They found that the larvae 'are able to digest and utilise' the toxin and may be using it as a "supplementary food", adding that the presence of the poison 'could have modified the nutritional balance in plants' for them.
Lean writes that the research concluded: "Bt transgenic crops could therefore have unanticipated nutritionally favourable effects, increasing the fitness of resistant populations."
This information came from The Independent's web page at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=392044
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