Senior AgriPulse reporter Philip Brasher ran a provocative story in AgriPulse May 15, 2019 entitled “Blocked by GMO Politics, African Scientist Turns to 1950s Technology” (paywall, so no link possible). It reports that Dr. Kingdom Kwapata, a plant breeder trained at Michigan State University, returned to Malawi to work on cowpea genetics. This legume, also […]
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USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) recently updated the data product Adoption of Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S., and the new data provides important insights on the prevalence of so-called “stacked” varieties. A “stacked” variety of GMO corn or cotton is engineered to express two or more distinct traits — typically herbicide tolerance (e.g., Roundup Ready) and Bt transgenic (i.e., […]
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Few people engaged today in the important debates over regulation of agricultural biotechnology know or remember much about the critical debates that unfolded when the gen-one wave of ag biotechnologies first hit the beach. Today, as CRISPR-driven, largely untested technology rolls on shore, attention to lessons learned in the past (but thus far unheeded) might […]
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Genetically engineered (GE) corn and cotton expressing Bt toxins for insect control came on the market in 1996. The most contentious public policy and regulatory issue prior to approval was whether and how the biotech-seed companies should prevent the emergence and spread of insects newly resistant to Bt toxins. For more on the debate over […]
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In a paper sure to trigger a full-on immune response from Monsanto/Bayer and ag biotech proponents, rats fed a triple-stack GE corn for about 6 months had clear-cut damage to their stomach lining. The triple-stack corn fed to the rats expressed two Bt genes (MON 863 and MON 810), and the NK603 gene conferring resistance […]
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Maharashtra is one of the major cotton growing areas in India. Most of the cotton planted in recent years has expressed the Bt gene to control certain insects, but a combination of factors including resistance has eroded its efficacy. Between higher priced seed and the need to apply extra insecticide, cotton farmers in the region […]
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Chris DiFonzo, a Michigan State entomologist, has compiled with colleagues a farmer-friendly table of all GE corn traits and trade names. A special feature of the 2017 version of the table is getting a lot of attention – a column designating which insects, including the Southwestern corn borer larvae shown here, may be resistant to […]
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It looks like Dow-DuPont’s genetically modified Herculex corn is no longer controlling the western bean cutworm. This corn was engineered to express a protein called Cry1F, toxic to the pests that feed on corn kernels and lead to fungus growth. This control failure is the latest in a series that are collectively undermining the efficacy […]
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Historic posts are reprinted verbatim from their original source. Source: Editorial Desk, The New York Times, February 19, 2003 One of the most pervasive chemicals in modern agriculture is a herbicide called glyphosate, which is better known by its trade name, Roundup. When it was first introduced in 1974, by Monsanto, no one could have predicted […]
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