http://www.grist.org/list/2011-08-29...s-are-losing-t
heir-pest-control-powers

Monsanto fail: GMO crops are losing their pest control powers
by Sarah Laskow

29 Aug 2011
Monsanto crops bred to thwart western corn rootworms, which love eating
corn roots, are no longer are doing their job. The rootworms developed a
resistance to the natural pesticide the crops produced and are chowing
down.

The alternatives for farmers: buy other genetically modified seeds
(which will totally work forever!); spray nastier insecticides; abandon
the economic model of monoculture and GMO crops. Guess which one's going
to happen. Maybe which two out of three.

Scientists are already working on a new way to make buggies regret they
ever thought for a second about eating corn: it's called RNA
interference, and it builds genetic code into plants that turns off
essential genes of any bugs that eat it. At least, we hope it only
applies to bugs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...enetically-mod
ified-corn_n_944138.html

Beetle Develops Resistance To Monsanto's Genetically Modified Corn
Monsanto Genetically Modified Corn

8/31/11
WASHINGTON -- Corn beetles have been consuming plants that were
genetically modified to be resistant to that very beetle, raising fears
that a new superbug could develop or that farmers could be forced to
increase the use of pesticides.

In a study published late last month, Iowa State University entomologist
Aaron Gassmann found that western corn rootworms (WCR) in four Iowa
fields have developed resistance to an insect-killing protein derived
from Bacillus thuringiensis, also known as Bt, the natural insecticide
in Monsanto's genetically modified corn plant.

While there's still no evidence that any significant number of the pests
have become resistant to the genetically modified seeds sold by
agribusiness giant Monsanto, the findings may have farmers looking for
alternatives.

Laboratory testing confirmed beetles were able to pass on Bt-resistance
to their offspring.

"These results suggest that improvements in resistance management and a
more integrated approach to the use of Bt crops may be necessary,"
Gassmann wrote in his study.

But Monsanto, which first released the genetically modified seeds in
2003, said the vast majority of customers are still getting good returns
from the technology.

"These products continue to perform very well for growers in 2011,
providing the expected level of WCR control on more than 99% of the
acres planted with this technology," Monsanto wrote in a statement on
its website.

AFP reported that Michael Gray, a crop scientist at the University of
Illinois, is investigating whether pests that devoured genetically
modified corn in Illinois earlier this year have also developed
resistance to the plant's toxins.

To curb the development of resistance, Monsanto is recommending that
farmers rotate crops, using non-Bt corn and SmartStax seeds introduced
in 2010 to kill the pests in a new way.

The four fields in which the pests were found had been planted with the
genetically modified seeds for at least three consecutive years.