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Is GM wrecking the BUZZ in USA?

  • 13-03-2007 2:06am
    #1
    democrates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,046 ✭✭✭


    I'd forgotten about this but it's arisen again in the news and seems to be getting worse.

    Recent National Geographic article revisits the mystery of mass disappearance of bees (necessary for pollination of food crops...) accross the US and parts of Canada. As you would expect a wiki summary of the "colony collapse disorder" story to date is available, though closed to edits due to some 'current event'.

    In summary, adult bees leave the hive which is transported by keepers to a farm for a fee to do their nectar gathering and so pollinate the crops, never to be seen again. Some keepers have lost 90% of their hives, many have gone out of business, some have resorted to importing Australian bees, and farmers are saying if they can't get pollinators there's no point in planting food crops. Even politicians have woken up.

    The wiki article dismisisses GM as a candidate culprit on the basis that GM plants which are known to produce toxins are not big bee visitation sites. Instead they focus on possibilities such as a bee version of HIV carried by mites, bad bee-keeper management, or new nicotine-based pesticides. Interesting.

    The national geo article states:
    Researchers are closely watching what is happening to bee colonies currently pollinating California's 1.4-billion-dollar almond crop. Almonds are 100 percent dependent on bee pollination. Already some beekeepers have reportedly seen their colonies in California collapse during the almond pollination.


    So I google, and hey presto :
    The history of genetic improvement of arthropod natural enemies is reviewed briefly and I describe the successful genetic improvement and deployment in California almond orchards of a pesticide-resistant predatory mite. Lessons learned from our efforts to deploy this and other natural enemies in alfalfa, citrus and walnuts from several genetic improvement projects conducted over the past 30 years are described, because they may provide useful lessons for future projects. Gaps in our knowledge are identified, especially in deploying such genetically modified natural enemies, and recommendations are made regarding how to plan such projects. Finally, issues of risk and regulation are discussed based on our experiences with a short-term field trial of a transgenic predatory mite in Florida....
    I won't jump to conclusions, but neither should wikipedia.


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