Studie "The GMO-emperor has no clothes" (engl.) - Nabu

utterfly. Navdanya’s studies have shown that
soil micro-organisms are negatively affected.
The primary justification for the genetic
engineering of Bt into crops is that this will
reduce the use of insecticides. Bt cotton is among
the ‘miracles’ being pushed by corporations like
Monsanto as a solution to the pesticide crisis. One
of the Monsanto brochures had a picture of a few
worms and stated, “You will see these in your
cotton and that’s O.K. Don’t spray.” However, in
Texas, Monsanto faced a lawsuit filed by 25 farmers
over Bt cotton planted on 18,000 acres which
suffered cotton bollworm damage and on which
farmers had to use pesticides in spite of corporate
propaganda that genetic engineering meant an end
to the pesticide era. In 1996, two million acres in
the US were planted with Monsanto’s transgenic
Bollgard cotton.
However, cotton bollworms were found to
have infested thousands of acres planted with
the new breed of cotton in Texas. Not only did
the genetically engineered cotton not survive
cotton bollworm attack, there are also fears that
the strategy will create super bugs by inducing
Bt – resistance in pests. The question is not
whether super-pests will be created, but when
they will become dominant. The fact that the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the
US requires refugia of non-engineered crops to
be planted near the engineered crops reflects the
reality of the creation of resistant strains of insects.
The widespread use of Bt containing crops
could accelerate the development of insect pest
resistance to Bt which is used for organic pest
control. Already eight species of insects have
developed resistance to Bt toxins, either in the field
or laboratory, including the diamond back moth,
Indian meal moth, tobacco budworm, Colorado
potato beetle, and two species of mosquitoes.
A new Super Pest which has become Resistant to GM Corn
The genetically engineered Bt crops continuously
express the Bt toxin throughout its growing
season. Long term exposure to Bt toxins promotes
development of resistance in insect populations,
this kind of exposure could lead to selection for
resistance in all stages of the insect pest on all parts
of the plant for the entire season.
Due to this risk of pest resistance, the EPA offers
only conditional and temporary registration of
varieties producing Bt. The EPA requires four
percent ‘refugia’ with Bt cotton, meaning four
percent of planted cotton is conventional and
does not express the Bt toxin. It therefore acts
as a refuge for insects to survive and breed, and
hence keeps the overall level of resistance in the
population low. Even at a 4 percent refugia level,
insect resistance will evolve in as little as three to
four years.
Herbicide Resistant Crops: A Recipe for
Superweeds
Herbicide resistant crops such as Roundup Ready
cotton can create the risk of herbicide resistant
“superweeds” by transferring the herbicide
resistance to weeds. Monsanto has confirmed
that a notorious Australian weed, rye grass, has
developed tolerance to its herbicide Roundup,
thus rendering genetic engineering of herbicide
resistant crops a useless strategy.
In 1994, research scientists in Denmark reported
strong evidence that an oilseed rape plant
genetically engineered to be herbicide tolerant
transmitted its transgene to a weedy natural
relative, Brassica campestris ssp. Campestris. This
transfer can become established in the plant in just
two generations.
In Denmark, B. campestris is a common weed
in cultivated oilseed rape fields, where selective
elimination by herbicides is now impossible. The
wild relative of this weed is spread over large
parts of the world. One way to assess the risk of
releasing transgenic oilseed rape is to measure the
rate of natural hybridization with B. campestris,
because certain transgenes could make its wild
relative a more aggressive weed, and even harder to
control.
Although crosses with B. campestris have been
used in the breeding of oilseed rape, natural
interspecific crosses with oilseed rape was
generally thought to be rare. Artificial crosses by
hand pollination carried out in a risk assessment
project in the U.K were reported unsuccessful.
However, a few studies have reported spontaneous
hybridization between oilseed rape and the
parental species B. campestris in field experiments.
As early as 1962, hybridization rates of zero percent
to 88 percent were measured for oilseed rape and
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