Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops

   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #1  

Diggin It

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Some of the most popular products of biotechnology corn and cotton plants that have been genetically modified to fend off insects are no longer offering the same protection from those bugs. Scientists say that the problem results from farmers overusing the crops, and are pushing for new regulations.



Now all of those benefits are increasingly at risk. Bt crops are losing their power. New strains of bollworms, rootworms, and other pests have emerged that are able to feed on Bt plants without dying.


Scientists have long warned about this risk. They've been engaged in a long-running argument
with the companies selling Bt crops, such as Monsanto, which has been acquired by Bayer.


Some GMO Crops Are Losing Their Resistance To Pests : NPR



This does NOT surprise me at all. What surprises me is that it took so long to become known. And it's not the first time this kind of thing has happened. Many other bacteria have become resistant or immune to efforts to eradicate them.

We continue to believe we are at the top of the food chain and the smartest creatures on the planet. Nature keeps proving we are not.




 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #2  
Farmers can always go back to heavy chemical applications, though that is expensive and time consuming. Plus, chemicals kill every insect in sight, not just the target species. Maybe there are bT strains out there that are still effective? With CRISPR technology, new strains don't have to go through FDA testing because they don't use a virus to insert the gene.

Chemicals have their own Achilles heel. If you don't want to breed resistant bugs, you have to over-apply the chemical to make sure you kill all of them. That's far heavier application than if you just want a crop. Since the chemicals are expensive, farmers are biased toward minimalist applications.
 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #3  
Nature always works to remove the real pest...humans.

 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #4  
Farmers can always go back to heavy chemical applications, though that is expensive and time consuming. Plus, chemicals kill every insect in sight, not just the target species. Maybe there are bT strains out there that are still effective? With CRISPR technology, new strains don't have to go through FDA testing because they don't use a virus to insert the gene.

Chemicals have their own Achilles heel. If you don't want to breed resistant bugs, you have to over-apply the chemical to make sure you kill all of them. That's far heavier application than if you just want a crop. Since the chemicals are expensive, farmers are biased toward minimalist applications.

And insects develop immunity to chemicals too. Not to sound like a tree hugger (other than oaks of course), but how much of the decline in bee and bat populations can be traced, directly or indirectly to pesticides and GMO plants? I would hope most farmers aren't so short-sighted as not to realize the shotgun approach is making things worse.
 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #5  
Too many people believe what they chose to believe based on their best financial interests. I hate seeing our ponds, with farmers heavily invested in chemical agriculture a few feet away.
 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #6  
And insects develop immunity to chemicals too. Not to sound like a tree hugger (other than oaks of course), but how much of the decline in bee and bat populations can be traced, directly or indirectly to pesticides and GMO plants? I would hope most farmers aren't so short-sighted as not to realize the shotgun approach is making things worse.

Let's see some links or data to support the comment that bee and bat decline is linked to GMO plants.
 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #7  
I've been conducting research on GMO cotton since it came out in 1996... it was amazing how well it worked. Watched as years gone by the resistant insects making a comeback. I also worked with the 2nd and 3rd generation (with VIP) and this 3rdt generation will not last but a couple years before the insect are resistant. I've been screening for the 4th generation the last couple of years and there are a few that look good (in small plot work). But when that cotton is released to 100k acres, all planted to the same thing... that is where resistant moths can find and mate with other resistant moths.

Back in the early days, one of the professors in our department created a resistant strain of Corn Earworm in a just a couple years in the lab. We knew it then that the natural population would do the same...

GMO was toxic enough to never worry about the budworm... to this day it's still has never lived on GMO cotton. The budworm was worse than the bollworm because the budworm was much more resistant to the chemicals at the time (harder to kill). The European Corn Borer was hit really hard (could not reproduce on GMO cotton) but this year I saw several feeding sites by ECB (meaning that they can survived for awhile (able to tolerate the toxin it a bit more).

As I type, I'm wearing a T-shirt from one of the few entomology projects that did work, Boll Weevil Eradication program (under that states "Fear No Weevil" There was another shirt that read: "Deliver Us From Weevil"...
 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #8  
....bee and bat decline is linked to GMO plants.
Bees love' em some GMO cotton!!!! mainly because it is only sprayed a few times. One of the (thoughts) with bee decline was when imidacloprid (neonicotinoids) came on the market. Great chemical but it was so quickly overused and sprayed to control everything...

Bats, ??? not my area of expertise...
 
   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #9  
P1080679.JPG

The far right side of this photo, is second generation GMO. It's cotton candy to bollworm insects. The cotton you see here is because I applied Prevathon insecticide. The dark spots in the middle, no chemical was applied.

{edit} just to add that when the first GMO started to fail, that second generation worked great for a while, a stack of 1st and 2nd protein. Problem was the 1st protein really did not add much since resistance was wide spread. Now with the 3rd VIP trail, you can see in the photo (far right) insects are already resistant to the 2nd gen so it's basically just a release of VIP against the insects...
 
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   / Insects Have Adapted to GMO Efforts To Protect Crops #10  
Bees love' em some GMO cotton!!!! mainly because it is only sprayed a few times. One of the (thoughts) with bee decline was when imidacloprid (neonicotinoids) came on the market. Great chemical but it was so quickly overused and sprayed to control everything...

Bats, ??? not my area of expertise...

Not asking about bees and bats vs pesticides. That's been proven over and over. I want to read credible sources documenting bee and bat decline because of GMO crops. Still waiting.
 
 
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