Re: The Geoengineering Thread Pt. 2
Posted: Tue 18 Mar 2014, 17:59:59
Hopefully Geo-engineering won't fail like this;
Corn-eating worm evolves to feed on GMO corn designed to kill it
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/18/c ... o-kill-it/
snip
The path of most failures of human designed solutions, People who for greed or arrogance refuse to do the prudent thing, and just end up making matters worse.
Corn-eating worm evolves to feed on GMO corn designed to kill it
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/18/c ... o-kill-it/
The crop itself is not to blame, say scientists, but rather mismanagement by farmers, corporations and lawmakers that has led to the squandering of whatever benefits had been gained by the use of the genetically modified crop.
snip
In order to keep the rootworms from developing a resistance to the Bt corn toxin, farmers were told to keep “refuges” of non-Bt corn so that rootworms could grow there unaffected. Those worms were meant to be mated with worms in Bt fields in order to keep the worms from developing an immunity to the GMO corn.
Scientists proposed to the EPA that farms should consist of at least half non-Bt corn, but these regulations were opposed by the seed companies peddling the GMO corn. Eventually, the EPA set voluntary guidelines of 5 to 10 percent of land left for non-Bt corn.
Many farmers didn’t even follow that recommendation.
Now, rootworms are back, returning in 2009 to cornfields in northeastern Iowa. Those worms had become resistant to one species of the three available Bt corn types. More reports followed from Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The path of most failures of human designed solutions, People who for greed or arrogance refuse to do the prudent thing, and just end up making matters worse.