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Old 23-08-2003, 02:02 PM
Brian Sandle
 
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Default Byssinosis from GM cotton?

Gordon Couger wrote:

"Brian Sandle" wrote in message
...
Thomas Mueller wrote:
Excerpt from Brian Sandle :


Recent news has stated how Monsanto are embarassed by this: many GM

crop
fields are now plagued by weeds resistant to Roundup herbicide. That

means
extra doses of Roundup and other herbicides are being applied. Does

any
of it stay in the cotton lint, and on to the spun thread?


If the lint of Bt cotton does not contain Bt I wonder if insects will
adapt to eating mainly the lint, thereby escaping too much toxin. Does

a
wood borer get energy from cellulose?


Heavy use of Roundup for weed control in connection with Roundup-ready

GM crops
whose seeds are produced by Monsanto leads to the weeds evolving

resistance to
Roundup, just as insects have evolved resistance to insecticides.


As well as the fields getting filled with plants like nettles which
already had resistance.

As Gordon showed us:

http://www.couger.com/farm. He said the weeds are nettles and will
go down with the first dose of Roundup. But I have recently posted
`weeds' thread, that anettles are not so susceptible to Roundup. A
mix with pursuit is needed.

So maybe the Roundup had already applied.

Gordon said the yellow colour of those plants was younger age,
compared to his ones.

You don't apply round up to a crop that is not safely up and the ground to
wet to drive on. You can only apply so much and you want to time it so you
get all the weeds you can.


More likely they used pre-planting Roundup to remove weeds which
would compete with the emerging cotton. But the nettles were not
killed.

Or maybe Or maybe Roundup (glyphosate) causes some yellowing, in
Roundup Ready plants, even if not as much as Zeneca's sulfosinate


sorry, wrong spelling, shoudl be sulfosate.


snip .


So we give the boll worm the option of developing resistance
biochemcially or learning to avoid too much of the part of the plant
which contains the Bt. In the latter case don't we see attempts by
biotech to put Bt in the cellulose?


The boll worm can survive with out the boll to protect him from the elements
and predators.


How does that answer what I wrote?

The boll worm eats the cotton seeds, which are GM Bt. It cuts the
lint to get to the seed. And you say the lint gives protection to
the boll worm.

Another writer said wood borer must get energy from cellulose, since
cellulose is such a large fraction of wood. So maybe the boll worm
can adapt to eat some cellulose - the lint - instead of just using
it for protection. Or else it can develop and enzyme to detoxify
Bt. Or both.

Either learn something about what your are taking about or go back to
****.down.my.leg.environmentally.whining.


In this case I am trying to guess what biotechnicians might do in
the future. If the boll worm adapts to eating and getting energy
from lint then the biotechs might try to develop a plant with Bt in
the lint. If so some asthmatics might have more trouble with cotton
fibre. Just guessing. Some need to wear a mask when gardening and Bt
is a soil micro-organism. It may need checking some time in the
future.