Author Topic: Modified Corn and Bees  (Read 2796 times)

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charlesoakwood

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Modified Corn and Bees
« on: April 26, 2012, 01:44:42 AM »
Quote

Monsanto Buys Bee Collapse Research Group
...
Last fall, Monsanto quietly purchased Beeologics, which is “dedicated to restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination,” by combating Colony Collapse Disorder, according to the company’s website.
 
Since then, beekeepers and agricultural officials in Poland publicly blamed Monsanto’s MON810 corn for killing off thousands of bees. More than 1,500 people demonstrated in Warsaw against the company, and later the Ministry of Agriculture banned MON810 from use on Polish farms.
...


Syndicated CBS program "The Doctors", a four doctor chit chat info show, today (or yesterday) talked about genetically modified food.  They were in agreement that the science on the long term affects on humans is, "we don't know".   Wonder if they
checked with bees before modificating our food?

« Last Edit: April 26, 2012, 01:49:11 AM by Charles Oakwood »

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2012, 07:00:18 AM »
If you know any committed "natural foods" type people, you'll likely run into people who demonize Monsanto primarily because of their genetic modifications that create non-seed-bearing crops, their near monopoly on that "non-legacy" seed, and their crowding of affordable "legacy" seeds out of the market.

I used to write off that demonization as tree-hugger/granola-eater pablum, but the more I've learned, the more I think there is something to the claims. Especially now that we see the UN seeking to redistribute wealth across the globe, and the US government willing to attack family farms and pick industrial winners and losers for favorable treatment ie; Gibson/Martin.

Talk about your threat to the food supply in the event economies collapse. Control of Monsanto would for all practical purposes, be control of the world.
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charlesoakwood

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2012, 11:40:17 AM »

Check the little sticker (numbers under the bar code) on vegetables at the market, four digits it's modified, five digits it's not.

I always thought the govt jumped the gun allowing genetically modified food into the food supply so fast.  There should have been twenty year controlled studies on this before allowing it to market.  Now it appears to be the reason all the bees are dying.



Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2012, 05:05:23 PM »
IDP, I'm not a tree-hugger but I've read about Monsanto and heard interviews of farmers. 


It concerns me--not only the possible effects on humans of genetically modified seeds but on the ability to maintain a reliable food supply.
Reliance on one company to provide most all of the seed (corn for example)and pesticide leaves us vulnerable if that seed begins to fail. 




And then there are the bees....

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2012, 05:17:18 PM »
I remember THIS story from several months back, saying that "zombie" fly larvae were essentially taking over bees and preventing them from doing their "geometry dance" that leads to pollination.

I wonder if this fly is at all connected to the genetically modified seed. In other words, are these two separate suspected causes for the bee dye-off, are do they play into one another somehow?
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2012, 05:38:52 PM »
Thank you for finding that, IDP; I've looking sporadically all day for that without being able to remember the "parasitic fly" part.  'Splains why I couldn't find it.

When we at the nursery a couple of weeks ago, for the garden plants, we bought corn and radish seeds, too.  Nothing on either package indicated hybrid or heirloom, so I asked.  Apparently, this is a "difficult" thing to find out, as I was shifted from person to person to THE person who knew how to look it up on the computer.  None of them seemed particularly interested in the information, as though it was irrelevant, which I thought out-of-place in a nursery that prides itself on its quality plantings.

I will have to remember to look on the seed packets for the "code" CO explained.
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charlesoakwood

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2012, 06:36:19 PM »
From IDP's link
Quote

Interaction among the parasite and multiple pathogens could be one possible factor in colony collapse, according to the latest study by researchers at San Francisco State University. It says the phorid fly, or apocephalus borealis, was found in bees from three-quarters of the 31 hives surveyed in the San Francisco Bay area.  

 

Now, brought to us by geniuses AGAIN the same damn genus to kill fire ants that are killing the bees.  Introducing into more alien species into our environment.   Shades of foreign fish destroying native fish habitat and kudzu.  

Phorid flies
 plant eggs in the thorax of the ants, they hunt them hover over them and insert their (stinger) and plant an egg which matures and eats the ant.
Quote

...
“The flies attack and eventually kill the ants, but their real impact is that they stalk the fire ants when they’re foraging,” Schofield said. “That reduces foraging activity which, in turn, helps limit food within the fire ant colony.”
...

« Last Edit: April 26, 2012, 06:44:23 PM by Charles Oakwood »

charlesoakwood

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2012, 06:48:49 PM »

Pan, I was referring to produce at the grocery, I don't know if it carries over
to seeds.  It wouldn't be surprising to discover a simple key to seed packets
also.

Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2012, 07:02:39 PM »
The billion-dollar pest: U.S. beetle is developing resistance to one of the most widely used genetically modified crops, say scientists( which is corn.)

And in India Bt cotton is failing Not only has Bt cotton been rendered ineffective, it has also led to detection of some new pests never before reported from India. It is toxic only to bollworm and does not control any other pests of cotton. "New sucking pests have emerged as major pests causing significant economic losses", the report says.
 
At the same time, productivity of cotton has fallen from 560 kg lint per hectare in 2007 to 512 kg lint per hectare in 2009.
 
And pesticide expenditure has gone up from from Rs.597 crore in 2002 to Rs.791 crore in 2009
I read somewhere else that farmers in India are losing their businesses because they can't keep up with the increasing costs of using modified cotton seeds from Monsanto.

AND there's this:
Quote
President Obama knows that agribusiness cannot be trusted with the policy and regulatory powers of government. On the campaign trail in 2007, he promised:

We'll tell ConAgra that it's not the Department of Agribusiness. It's the Department of Agriculture. We're going to put the people's interests ahead of the special interests.

So we all know what that means! 
This of course:

Quote
President Obama has taken his team of food and farming leaders directly from the biotech companies and their lobbying, research, and philanthropic arms.

Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, is now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods.

Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, is now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Islam Siddiqui, Vice President of the Monsanto and Dupont-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife, is now the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative.

Rajiv Shah, former agricultural-development director for the pro-biotech Gates Foundation (a frequent Monsanto partner), served as Obama's USDA Under Secretary for Research Education and Economics and Chief Scientist and is now head of USAID.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who took Monsanto's side against organic farmers in the Roundup Ready alfalfa case, has been nominated to the Supreme Court.

Now, Ramona Romero, corporate counsel to DuPont, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

DuPont's lengthy record of lies, crimes and misdeeds are well known, and the company's efforts to deceive the public and cover-up risks of its products continue to this day.
find the rest at HuffPo
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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2012, 07:13:51 PM »
Fascism and corporate favoritism. Government ruins then runs the economy with the aid of corporations willing to play ball in order to keep what they have.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2012, 07:22:50 PM »

Pan, I was referring to produce at the grocery, I don't know if it carries over
to seeds.  It wouldn't be surprising to discover a simple key to seed packets
also.


I know, and I appreciate having that information. 

Can't hurt to look, though.
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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2012, 07:41:51 PM »
This is another item that needs to be thought of in TEOTWAWKI terms.  Obtaining and storing proper seeds; ones that can and do generate good seeds of their own.

Wonder if Weisshaupt has put some away.
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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2012, 10:28:49 PM »
This is another item that needs to be thought of in TEOTWAWKI terms.  Obtaining and storing proper seeds; ones that can and do generate good seeds of their own.


Even though I don't have a garden right now I have in the past and will probably in the future.  I've been thinking a lot lately about saving/storing seeds.  I have a few put away but not nearly enough. I think this might be my project over the next week.
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Offline Weisshaupt

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2012, 11:14:51 PM »
This is another item that needs to be thought of in TEOTWAWKI terms.  Obtaining and storing proper seeds; ones that can and do generate good seeds of their own.

Wonder if Weisshaupt has put some away.

You know we have  ;)

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Re: Modified Corn and Bees
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2012, 11:23:23 PM »
This is another item that needs to be thought of in TEOTWAWKI terms.  Obtaining and storing proper seeds; ones that can and do generate good seeds of their own.

Wonder if Weisshaupt has put some away.

You know we have  ;)

Yeah, I know.  Rhetorical, friend.  Greenhouse!
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