Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It

[The Straight Story]

One of agricultural biotechnology’s great success stories may become a cautionary tale of how short-sighted mismanagement can squander the benefits of genetic modification.

After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of corn rootworms that are resistant to Bt corn.

Until Bt corn was genetically altered to be poisonous to the pests, rootworms used to cause billions of dollars in damage to U.S. crops. Named for the pesticidal toxin-producing Bacillus thuringiensis gene it contains, Bt corn now accounts for three-quarters of the U.S. corn crop. The vulnerability of this corn could be disastrous for farmers and the environment.

“Unless management practices change, it’s only going to get worse,” said Aaron Gassmann, an Iowa State University entomologist and co-author of a March 17 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study describing rootworm resistance. “There needs to be a fundamental change in how the technology is used.”

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/03/rootworm-resistance-bt-corn/

[villager]

1. What will the corporate-spawned biotech apologists say now?

Especially since such a "woo" prediction is coming to pass?

[MattBaggins]

4. No one called this a woo predicition

this was predicted by SCIENCE, not Woo.

[villager]

7. Oh it would've been, had the prediction been posted here a couple years back

Simply because it didn't fit the "approved" corporate science of the moment

[MattBaggins]

17. Nonsense

[villager]

21. I agree, it makes no sense

But that's how it is with those angrily declaiming only within narrowly-approved talking points

They're terrified of anything outside their already set precepts

[SidDithers]

34. Apparently, to the woo purveyors, evolution isn't science...nt

Sid

[CFLDem]

5. It's not a woo prediction,

it's a scientific prediction called evolution, and it will be properly responded to with the appropriate bioengineering solution.

Science FTW!

[Berlum]

15. ...although those whose insights are routinely denigrated as "woo" by Poo* Pimps...

...certainly saw this CORPORATE CLUSTERF*CK coming a long time ago.

*Poo = Scientific Materialism, not science.

[villager]

22. Yeah, it was pretty obvious. But I guess it never fit the talking points.

n/t

[mathematic]

6. Evolved pesicide resistance is not woo

You're claiming it is woo in order to discredit the woo label in general.

Evolution, pests, and pesticides fall well under the umbrella of agriculture science, not woo.

[villager]

9. Actually, your mathematics is completely backward on this

What I'm saying is that lot of science that runs counter to a specific corporate agenda is sneeringly called "woo" in order to discredit it, and make it seem "less than" whatever science the corporadoes have deemed acceptable to their own bottom-line agenda

[bvar22]

12. This isn't a glitch...it IS a Marketing Feature!

NOW, we will all need the New & Improved GM Corn next year to deal with the new & improved pest!!!!
THAT is how GM works!

Fringe benefit if we can produce a more virulent Corn Pest that absolutely destroys all natural Corn Crops.
Talk about Cornering the Market!!!
Its the FREE MARKET!
Better get you some!

[villager]

13. How long 'til they outlaw your little patch of "woo," Bvar, for *non-compliance*

with 'emergency' growing regulations...

Passed by them, of course, in response to the very bio-crisis they created (and which their apologists abetted).

[bvar22]

28. I think our little patch is safe for now,

....because we pose absolutely NO financial threat to the BIG MONEY Players.
They don't care about us.
They DO care about the small scale farmer who can market his produce as GMO free,
and have done a good job a stamping him out.

Obama selects former Monsanto lobbyist to be his TPP chief agriculture negotiator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662210

Obama appoints Tom Mr Monsanto Vilsack to head the USDA
http://www.organicconsumers.org/usda_watch.cfm

Obama appoints Monsanto Lawyer & Lobbyist to head FDA
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html


At our age,
and with our few resources,
we just want to be left alone,
but you are free to drop in for NON-GMO Green Beans and NON-GMO Corn Bread
whenever you are in the neighborhood!

[villager]

29. I guess you're only a threat if you think the "free market" should offer non-GMO choices!

Keep those "invisible hands" to yourself!

[bvar22]

30. Well, I DID vote for the guy who promised to label food with GMO warnings in 2008.

A guy like that could be a threat if he ever got elected President.

What ever happened to that guy?
A guy like THAT would be a big threat to Monsanto.
I'll bet he had Monsanto shaking in their boots.
Imagine if HE had WON the election!


Obama selects former Monsanto lobbyist to be his TPP chief agriculture negotiator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662210

Obama appoints Tom Mr Monsanto Vilsack to head the USDA
http://www.organicconsumers.org/usda_watch.cfm

Obama appoints Monsanto Lawyer & Lobbyist to head FDA
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html

[villager]

31. Imagine if someone like that actually held the office of the Presidency!

well, I "hope" it happens... someday!

[Logical]

20. FFS, Science believes in things evolving. Please link to a post where someone said insects......

adapting is Woo.

Nice lame attempt to discredit real science.

[villager]

23. Not very Logical

But often real science is at odds with corporate talking points, which many of its promulgaters insist is the only "real science"

[Logical]

25. Waiting for your links. nt

[villager]

26. Link is at the OP

Glad you're on board with "There needs to be a fundamental change in how the technology is used.”

[SidDithers]

36. ...

Sid

[villager]

40. ...

Villager

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. DUNE!

Hide the spice.

[mike_c]

3. THIS has always been the real problem with GMO Bt expression....

It fosters resistance to the best organic means of pest population control ever. Bt is a godsend for organic farming. Bt resistant pest insects are a nightmare.

[bettyellen]

10. I wish organic farmers would put together a class action lawsuit or something- because

monsanto is fucking up their shit.

[Berlum]

18. They did and the Roberts Court, Inc. (R) kicked it to the curb

[Agony]

19. Not for lack of trying...

this is not the Bt issue and unfortunately the court did not see it their way... but they tried to push back Monsanto.

"The eighty-three family farmers, small and family owned seed businesses, and agricultural organizations challenging Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seed filed papers in federal court today defending their right to seek legal protection from the threat of being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed. "

https://www.woodprairie.com/wpf_news

[Warren DeMontague]

35. It's a good point. Similarly, antibiotics are not evil, however their overuse causes resistance and

problems.

It's not the technology itself, IMHO, it's the way it is used.

[mike_c]

38. exactly....

eom

[Voice for Peace]

8. how to grow a voracious worm

[DirkGently]

11. Interesting. It's almost like GMO companies don't know what

the hell they're doing.

Almost.

[Berlum]

14. Avoid all GMO mutant OCCULT crapola foodlike product + Corporate Poo*

"Mutant corn worms are the least of the problems that will unfold with GMO, Inc. and its occult infestation of the land and the food chain." -

- The Profesee of Good Old Willie Woo



* Not science, but Scientific Materialism, Inc.

[MattBaggins]

27. Someday you will say something that makes sense

I know you can do it.

[SidDithers]

39. Nope. Not gonna happen...nt

Sid

[hatrack]

43. That was . . . . interesting . . . .

nt

[MattBaggins]

44. HelicalEagle

[idendoit]

16. Reminds me of the book Damnation Alley by Zelazny.

Post biotech apocalypse. The only life left on the surface is mutant cockroaches. They consume just about anything but metal. This is starting to sound plausible.

[WillyT]

24. History Shows Again And Again...

[kwassa]

32. I have a picture of the worm!

[Warren DeMontague]

33. "cautionary tale ... short-sighted mismanagement can squander the benefits of genetic modification"

Benefits? Benefits?

BLASPHEMY!

[AverageJoe90]

37. One must wonder if something else may be going on as well.....

Yeah, I'm sorry, but I can't trust the MSM to give us the whole story on a lot of these things these days.

I hate to seem like I'm scaring people, but there is, unfortunately, a possibility that some careless, or perhaps even malevolent(I'd hope that it was the former, though!), entity may very well have been intentionally tampering with the genes of the rootworms as well.....wouldn't rule it out, at least, as it's extremely unlikely that something like this would happen so soon.

(Although it can be admitted that stranger things have happened, so it really could just be a truly strange fluke of a coincidental roll of the evolutionary dice.)

[mike_c]

41. LOL-- there is no need for anyone to "tamper with the genes of the rootworm..."

...to make it a more efficient herbivore or to assist with developing resistance. Herbivorous insects have a number of physiological mechanisms for developing rapid resistance to environmental challenges-- that's their legacy from hundreds of millions of years of coevolution with plants and their defense chemistry. Mixed function oxidases, for a start. Well, after short generation times, rapid reproduction, high reproductive output, and lots of genetic variation. Hardly anything exceeds the ability of herbivorous insects for rapidly prototyping new, resistant phenotypes.

[AverageJoe90]

42. Okay, but it's the timescale that has me asking questions.

You may be right.....it may just be a fluke of nature that it happened so fast and not necessarily because of some foolhardy wannabe genius or whatever.

[DeSwiss]

45. K&R

- Stop eating this garbage and you won't get sick.