The billion-dollar pest: U.S. beetle is developing resistance to one of the most widely used genetically modified crops, say scientists

One of America’s most widely planted crops – a genetically engineered corn plant that makes its own insecticide – may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected.
The U.S. food supply is not in any immediate danger because the problem remains isolated. But scientists fear potentially risky farming practices could be blunting the hybrid’s sophisticated weaponry.
If rootworms do become resistant to Bt corn, it ‘could become the most economically damaging example of insect resistance to a genetically modified crop in the U.S.,’ said Bruce Tabashnik, an entomologist at the University of Arizona. ‘It’s a pest of great economic significance – a billion-dollar pest.’

Food for thought: Some rootworm beetles, right, have developed a resistance to genetically modified Bt corn, left, which has saved the U.S. farming industry billions in insecticides and lost yields

When it was introduced in 2003, so-called Bt corn seemed like the answer to farmers’ dreams: It would allow growers to bring in bountiful harvests using fewer chemicals because the corn naturally produces a toxin that poisons western corn rootworms.

Bt corn is designed to punch holes in the intestines of certain
insects and kill them. But what does it do to the gut, immune system,
and other vital organs of humans and animals?
A good question, especially since the biotech industry, EPA, and other government
officials have never bothered to look at this public health issue,
despite growing concerns expressed by a broad cross-section of
scientists and public interest consumer groups.
Hundreds of Americans over the past year have reported allergic
reactions to the FDA after eating corn products likely containing
StarLink corn or other Bt varieties.
Cattle and other animals have been observed on a number of farms in
the Midwestern US refusing to eat genetically engineered corn, while
simultaneously munching conventional corn, along with the entire
cornstalk, right down to the ground.
In a well-funded and carefully-designed experiment carried out by
Dr. Arpad Pusztai in the UK in 1995-99, rats fed lectin-spliced
potatoes (Bt is a member of the lectin family) suffered significant
damage to their gut, immune system, and other vital organs. Pusztai
later warned–after he was abruptly fired and his lab was shut
down–that all gene-spliced lectins, including Bt crops, should be
carefully investigated for possible adverse human health impacts.
. Gene-altered antibiotic resistant marker (ARM) genes, similar to
those contained in Bt corn, have been found in the guts of bees which
had consumed the pollen from GE plants. Sophisticated studies in the
Netherlands and Britain have indicated that ARM genes can likely
combine with bacteria already present in the human throat, mouth, and
gut. These “armed genes” can then give rise to new virulent,
antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, exacerbating the already
serious problem of antibiotic resistant pathogens such as salmonella,
now routinely found in non-organic meat and other animal products. The
British Medical Association and the World Health Organization have
recommended that the use of antibiotic resistance genes in GE corn and
other food crops be eliminated.
The hazards of genetically engineered corn, and other GE foods, are
frightening. But even if global resistance were able to drive GE corn
off the market tomorrow, we would still be left with a highly toxic,
chemical-intensive, industrial-style system of corn production which
is depleting soil fertility, poisoning municipal water supplies, and
quickly turning indigenous people and family farmers into an
endangered species. Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/corn/background.cfm

Doctors Warn About Dangers of Genetically Modified Food

(NaturalNews) The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has warned that the public should avoid genetically modified (GM) foods, stating, “There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation.”

A large number of studies and incidents have implicated GM foods in a wide variety of health problems, including accelerated aging, immune dysfunction, insulin disorders, organ damage and reproductive disruption.

For example, female rats fed a diet of GM soy experienced a drastically higher infant death rate, and their surviving infants were smaller and less fertile than the offspring of rats fed on a non-GM soy diet. Male rats fed the GM soy had their testicles change from pink to blue, and the GM soy was also observed to damage the DNA of sperm and embryos. Fertility problems such as abortion, infertility, premature delivery, prolapsed uteri, infant death, and even delivery of unformed infants (bags of water) have been observed in farm animals fed GM cottonseed and corn.

Animals consuming crops that have been genetically modified to produce the pesticide Bt (approved for human consumption in the United States) have died by the thousands, while animals grazing on a non-GM version of the same crops remained unharmed. Upon autopsies, researchers have found black patches in the animals’ livers and intestines, internal bleeding and other signs of Bt poisoning. Farm workers in India have begun developing allergic reactions upon handling Bt corn, similar to the effects experienced by people exposed to Bt spraying.

In addition to these risks, GM soy and corn contain significantly higher concentrations of allergens than unmodified varieties. Evidence also suggests that the genetic abnormalities of GM foods may transfer to bacteria in the human gut, thereby exposing people to their detrimental effects long after a food has been consumed.

Yet in spite of all this evidence and the prevalence of GM crops in the U.S. food supply not a single clinical trial of any GM crop has ever been published.

“The experiments simply haven’t been done and we now have become the guinea pigs,” said Canadian geneticist David Suzuki. “Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying.”

Sources for this story include: www.sentienttimes.com.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028245_GM_food_side_effects.html#ixzz1hwsaq958