Close encounters
To kill a caterpillar a virus was given a scorpion's gene. It was to take on caterpillars that fed on cabbage. The virus escaped beyond the trial area and acquired a taste for other delicacies and happily slaughtered many other non-target species, many on the protected list. To make matters worse following a clerical goof-up, the control and experimental plots got mixed up. And to top it, research conclusively proved that the virus in its natural form did a better job of killing caterpillars than when tampered with, genetically.
The French scientists at the National Agricultural Research Institute in Le Rheu, France have made their findings with a transgenic rape oilseed plant public. The plant had been given a gene making it resistant to the herbicide glusofinate ammonium. An unrelated species of wild radish was planted right next to it. Within four generations, the radish had acquired resistance against the herbicide as well.
Known for its cotton, southern usa is in a dilemma. Farmers in Mississippi are an unhappy lot and mighty sore with a transnational company, thanks to which over 12,000 hectares (ha) of cotton crop have failed. The plants are either producing malformed bolls or they are falling off the plant.
"Cotton, right across the road, of a different variety was unaffected," says Robert McCarty, director of Mississippi's bureau of plant industry in Starkville. The unhappy cotton farmers could lose millions of dollars following the failure of their crop. Produced by Monsanto, the cotton has a gene which gives it resistance to glyphosate, a herbicide that the company manufactures and sells as Roundup. It is supposed to simplify weed control: the herbicide should affect only the weeds and not the crop. Monsanto also ensures that the farmers use its Roundup to kill off weeds.
Monsanto, playing down the whole issue, claims to have tried out the seeds for three growing seasons a year in Africa and Argentina with satisfactory results. What actually happened in these tests is anybody's guess.
The Mississippi department of agriculture and commerce is investigating complaints that Monsanto Roundup Ready Cotton is not growing properly in some areas. Lester Spell, commissioner of agriculture, says the department is reviewing complaints from at least four farmers.
"In the first year of any new product introduction it is not uncommon for questions and issues to arise," Gary Barton, a Monsanto spokesman counters flippantly.
Meanwhile, the British are concerned with their staple food, the ever-favourite potato. Researchers in the uk have found that potatoes engineered to resist attack by aphids harm predatory ladybirds who feast on these aphids. The female species feasting on aphids given a diet of potato sap from genetically altered potatoes lived half as long as those preying on aphids fed on natural potatoes. Moreover, mating studies indicated up to 30 per cent fewer viable eggs. Such effects on beneficial predator species disturb the natural ecosystem where pest populations are kept in check by their predators.
A Swiss research station has given transgenic corn to cornborers and then fed these poisoned cornborers to other beneficial insects. Two out of three insects collapsed after a sumptuous repast. Something obviously had gone wrong because this should not have happened. They then fed the corn to another pest - the African cottonworm - which survived, surprising the researchers. The cottonworms were fed to the same species of beneficial insects. They rolled over and died. It seems the transgenic plants produced a toxin which remained active in the body of the insects which had consumed the corn. In case of humans, scientists fear that such effects may reduce the human life span or create problems further down the food chain, as is being reported with the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin gene.
Related Content
- Best Practices of Human Elephant Conflict Management in India
- Preliminary report on oil well blowout and explosion at an OIL well in Baghjan, Tinsukia, Assam, 24/07/2020
- Australia wrestles with climate change
- Fire-free land use in pre-1492 Amazonian savannas
- Now, jumbos have to encounter quarries
- A planet that orbits backwards