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The Raelian Movement
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Transgenic corn suppresses European corn borer, saves farmers billions
http://www.physorg.com/news205679668.html
October 7, 2010
Transgenic corn's suppression of the European corn borer has saved
Midwest farmers billions of dollars in the past decade, reports a new
study in Science. Credit: Photo provided by the University of
Minnesota.
Transgenic corn's suppression of the European corn borer has saved
Midwest farmers billions of dollars in the past decade, reports a new
study in Science.
Research conducted by several Midwest universities shows that
suppression of this pest has saved $3.2 billion for corn growers in
Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin over the past 14 years with more
than $2.4 billion of this total benefiting non-Bt corn growers.
Comparable estimates for Iowa and Nebraska are $3.6 billion in total,
with $1.9 billion accruing for non-Bt corn growers.
Transgenic corn is engineered to express insecticidal proteins from
the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt corn has become widely
adopted in U.S. agriculture since its commercialization in 1996. In
2009, Bt corn constituted 63 percent of the U.S. crop.
Corn borer moths can't distinguish between Bt and non-Bt corn, so
females lay eggs in both types of fields. Once eggs hatch in Bt corn,
young borer larvae feed and die within 24 to 48 hours.
The major benefit of planting Bt corn is reduced yield losses, and Bt
acres received this benefit after the growers paid Bt corn technology
fees. But as a result of areawide pest suppression, non-Bt acres also
experienced yield savings without the cost of Bt technology fees, and
thus received more than half of the benefits from growing Bt corn in
the region.
"We've assumed for some time that economic benefits were accruing,
even among producers who opted not to plant Bt hybrids," said
co-author of the study Mike Gray, University of Illinois Extension
entomologist and professor in the Department of Crop Sciences.
"However, once quantified, the magnitude of this benefit was even more
impressive."
Over the past several years, entomologists and corn producers have
noticed very low densities of European corn borers in Illinois. In
fact, Illinois densities have reached historic lows to the point where
many are questioning its pest status, Gray said.
"Since the introduction of Bt corn, initially targeted primarily at
the European corn borer, many entomologists and ecologists have
wondered if population suppression over a large area would eventually
occur," Gray said. "As this research shows, areawide suppression has
occurred and dramatically reduced the estimated $1 billion in annual
losses caused previously by the European corn borer."
This information also provides incentives for growers to plant non-Bt
corn in addition to Bt corn.
"Sustained economic and environmental benefits of this technology will
depend on continued stewardship by producers to maintain non-Bt maize
refuges to minimize the risk of evolution of Bt resistance in crop
pest species," Gray said.
Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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