Mais

Bt maize and butterflies and moths

At RWTH Aachen University, Mechthild Schuppener has succeeded in setting up a breeding programme for the small tortoiseshell butterfly. She needs small caterpillars for feeding studies that she is conducting in the laboratory. She wants to find out whether genetically modified Bt maize is harmful to butterflies.

• Bt maize: Pollen diet for caterpillars

Debate

Feed the world: With or without genetic engineering?

From 16 to 18 November, Rome hosted the World Food Summit, a gathering of heads of governments and NGOs organised by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). In 2009 the number of starving and malnourished people in the world rose to over a billion. Can plant biotechnology play a role in reducing hunger and poverty? GMO Safety asked two experts.

• Feed the world: With or without genetic engineering?
• "There are various organic farming techniques which can get us a lot further than genetic engineering" Interview with Hans Herren
• "With Bt cotton, and even with Bt maize, we have seen yield increases of 30 to 40 per cent in developing countries." Interview with Matin Qaim

Bt maize: Biosafety research results 2005-2008

Between 2005 and 2008, a large number of biosafety research projects investigated the ecological impacts of genetically modified MON88017 Bt maize, which has a new gene that makes it resistant to the Western corn rootworm. The research findings are now available. GMO Safety spoke to Stefan Rauschen of RWTH Aachen University.

• "Looking at all the results, we can assume that cultivation of this maize does not pose a problem." Interview with Stefan Rauschen (RWTH Aachen University)

Science live

Bt-maize: Bee trials 

The maize test area in the middle of August. Gauze-covered tents, distributed over the whole maize test area, represent the restricted habitat for the bees during the maize flowering season, each with two bee colonies. This flowering season is the crucial time for the bee trials of Stephan Härtel and his co-workers from the University of Bayreuth, since only then can the bees gather the maize pollen.

• "We are looking at how bee colonies that can gather pollen from only one type of maize develop."

Science live

"Bioplastic potatoes": Do they overwinter or rot differently?

Genetically modified potatoes which could provide the raw material for a biodegradable plastic are growing on a release site belonging to the University of Rostock. Overwintering trials will be conducted on the potato tubers this winter and their rotting behaviour will be observed.

• Cyanophycin potatoes: Will new plant substance lead to changes in potato characteristics? 

Science live

Bt maize: How does Bt protein behave in the soil?

On the maize research field: Scientists from the University of Göttingen are digging up a soil profile. As part of the maize research group they are responsible for characterising the soil on the trial fields. They are also investigating in the laboratory how much Bt protein the soil can bind and whether the Bt protein can move to lower soil layers.

• Science live: Binding sites and soil horizons. How does Bt protein behave in the soil?

Debate

"Acceptance and respect are very important to me"

The public debate about the use of plant biotechnology has intensified in recent years. Trial fields have been destroyed and research bodies and individual researchers are coming under increasing pressure. What does it feel like to be a young scientist conducting research into plant biotechnology under these conditions? GMO Safety spoke to Heike Mikschofsky at the University of Rostock.

• Plant biotechnology research: "I see a great need for knowledge transfer" Video interview with Heike Mikschofsky  

Maize

Bt maize: A risk to the environment?

In April 2009 Germany’s Minister of Agriculture, Ilse Aigner, banned the cultivation of MON810 Bt maize in Germany with immediate effect. Argumentation: there are new scientifc references that Bt maize possibly presents a risk to the environment. Many years of safety research have increased our understanding of the effects of Bt maize on the ecosystem. So far there are no clear indications of harmful effects.

• Safety research results: Bt maize and non-target organisms

• "We can clearly show varietal differences." Interview with Stefan Rauschen, RWTH Aachen University

• American ecologists evaluated 42 individual studies on the impacts of Bt plants on non-target organisms.