Monsanto GM Corn In Peril: Beetle Develops BT Resistance

Originally posted by TheLoony
Let me see if I've got this straight. We just created a beetle that eats corn and is impervious to roundup.

Huh.

Not to pick on you specifically, but I wanted to correct this misunderstanding.

Bt corn is NOT round-up ready corn.
Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis. It is a bacteria that produces a toxin which kills the beetles also moths and butterflys too, who are exposed to it in their guts when they eat it. (kinda like how botulinum toxin hurts us if we are exposed to it in our guts when we eat it). The corn or other plant has the genes engineered into it so that it produces this same Bt toxin (aka Cry toxin) as the bacteria. Hence the beetle eats the corn, the beetle gets the toxin in its digestive tract, the toxin damages the digestive tract and kills the beetle.

Round-up ready corn or any Round-up ready plant is a plant that has been engineered to be resistant to the glyphosate chemical (aka Round-up). This chemical is an herbicide, it kills off weeds and competing plants. But the glyphosate resistant engineered plants are able to metabolize the chemical and render it harmless.

So, these are two different classes of GMO.

Originally posted by Trueman

Originally posted by Ironclad
reply to post by chasingbrahman

 

this is not a good thing...!!

This is a terrible thing for two simple reasons..

1. Umbrella...errr I mean "Monsanto", will just make something even worse to combat the problem.

2. These beetles will now be even more dangerous to non-GM crops as well...!!

I disagree with you for this reason :

This is coming straight from The Mother Nature herself, she is wise and she is in charge.

I dissagree..

Mother Nature can also make mistakes.

Just take a look at human beings..!!

Let the little buggers have the crops! I know the world faces problems with feeding the population, but I do not feel that genetic foods is the answer. When people fool with mother nature she often throws a fit. I am recovering from an illness which may in fact been caused by "Plasticized" foods. Today children are developing diabetes at an alarming rate. Something has to be causing these conditions. I would blame what they eat before I would blame the environment.

Back before margerine, a Harvard medical student took a vacation in Germany and bought a new invention called the "Electrocardiograph". He brought it back to America and showed it to his classmates. They scoffed at him and remarked that heart disease was so rare that he would make far more money in another field. A vast array of negative health conditions began to occur as scientists began fooling around with food.

You can have my share of genetic food. I will continue with the hassle of finding natural foods.

Originally posted by lurker007
hooray!!!!
but at the same time ACK!
The price of corn will surely be going up once again!

Here's an idea!. . . conventional farming, non-modified seeds and a safe pesticide (if there is such a thing)

Would you rather have cheap GM corn on the market, or expessive non GM, personally I will put up with higher prices to keep this rubbish off the market.