Some recent studies about GM crops and research gives pause for thought rather than the film which you either love or hate..
The detrimental effects on butterflies was first revealed in a Cornell-University study published in the May 20th issue of "Nature" magazine. In a laboratory test 44 per cent of the larvae of the some butterflies fed with milkweed contaminated with Bt-maize pollen died within 48 hours. Research carried out at Iowa State University later confirmed the detrimental effect at the levels of pollen found in the fields.
These studies indicate that the toxic effects of Bt-pollen could impact a much wider range of lepidoptera, a class of insects that comprises all butterflies and moths. All species, whose caterpillars feed during the pollination time of maize, could be affected by maize pollen, which can be carried on the wind as far as 200 metres from its source.
"We hope that butterfly experts all over the world will help us to refine this initial list and will conduct more field studies, especially in the USA, where Bt-maize is grown in large quantities," Haerlin said.
Greenpeace calls upon Novartis, Monsanto and Pioneer to recall the already commercialised varieties of Bt-maize in Spain and Germany and demands that the European Commission immediately bans the release of these varieties, which are the first GMOs commercially grown within the European Union. "It is incomprehensible that even such obvious threats have not been considered prior to approval," said Haerlin. "The research on Monarchs reaffirms our warning that the large scale release of genetically engineered crops is an accident waiting to happen."
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{K:30432} 11/25/2004
