Tag: crops

The Astonishing Results of Bt Eggplants Research

Scientists from the University of the Philippines Los Baños joined their forces with a research team working at the Cornell University in order to investigate the effects of Bt eggplants on the surrounding species that are not the primary target of this insecticide. The research itself lasted for three planting seasons and it monitored the surrounding biosphere of both Bt eggplants and non-Bt eggplants. The results proved that species which are not targeted by Bt were not affected in any way.

The study was published a couple of weeks ago and it confirmed the previous findings. Similar researches were done with cotton and corn, and they also indicated that there was no interaction with the non-targeted species. However, these studies did not cover the entire three seasons. The results from Philippines explored the long term influence of this insecticide on the surrounding nature. Bt has been around since 1990s but for some reason it wasn’t a common subject in scientific studies of video porno.

What is Bt?

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a microorganism commonly used for protecting crops from various pests and insects. It can be introduced either to soil or to a crop itself. It was the first human-made insecticide that was approved for general use in the United States. Bt became very popular among farmers all around the world in the last two decades.

The positive effects of this finding

Dr. Anthony Shelton, a professor working at the Cornell University confirmed that these results will ensure both farmers and consumers that Bt eggplants are safe for environment, as well as for the customers. As a matter of fact, Bt eggplant will be very beneficial for the people living in Philippines because these plants are typically sprayed with toxic insecticides during the growing season. However, Bt eggplants do not require the same chemicals and they still remained resistant to the targeted pests.

Shoot borer pest is the most common troublemaker for farmers on Philippines and they use a variety of highly toxic insecticides in order to keep it away from their crops. Bt eggplant will completely change the way eggplants are cultivated in Philippines because there will be no need to spend additional funds for a wide range of pesticides. Integrated pest management is the future of agriculture because it will keep the surrounding ecosystem intact.

It is well known that pesticides can destroy the organisms that are essential for keeping the natural environment intact. These life forms help with the pollination of the crops, as well as with decomposition of different matters that keep the soil healthy and fertile. By removing these dangerous chemicals from the equation, you will get increased harvest productivity, as well as healthier crops.

Therefore, once they apply this technology to their fields, farmers will decrease the cost of the production which will lead to numerous consumer benefits. After all, they will be able to buy safer and healthier eggplants that cost less. The reduction of the standard pesticides will make the produce less hazardous for human health. It is really a win-win situation for both sides.

The Longest GMO Research: The Results Are In

The results of the longest GMO research have been released to the public last week and the findings are astonishing. The general public were left in the dark for years regarding the GMO crops and their influence on the economy of a country. A team of economists led by Francesco Ciliberti from The University of Virginia started collecting the data in 1998 and started analyzing it after fourteen years. They focused on the use of pesticides among farmers who are cultivating soy beans and maize, and looked at it from the economic aspect. The released findings mostly focus on the use of pesticides that include herbicides and insecticides and the final results are quite interesting.

The team and the research

Francesco Ciliberti managed to assemble a team of respectable economists who do have years of experience with data analysis. The majority of the team members come from respectable universities from all around the United States. They started their research back in 1998, selecting 10,000 US farmers who were growing soy beans and maize.

Have in mind that every past research that touched upon this topic usually covered only two or three years, so this study is definitely the largest (so far). Soy beans and maize are the most commonly cultivated crops in the world so it comes as no surprise that they decided to focus on the farmers who were growing those plants. The team selected the candidates and followed their journey from planting the first crop in 1998, to making a decision to grow GMO crops, and everything that followed, including the usage of pesticides and insecticides during each year.

GMO soy beans are modified in order to hold out against various weeds that ruin the crops, while genetically modified maize is resistant to pests. After planting the genetically modified crops, farmers did report the decrease in usage of herbicides and insecticides. They simply did not need it in the first couple of years of cultivating the genetically crops. However, the situation did change after a couple of years.

The results

Planting and growing GMO crops do have a significant impact on the economy due to the fact that the crops in question are more resistant to the outside factors and they generally give more produce at the end of each harvest. Additionally, farmers spend far less money on pesticides since they are not needed in this situation.

However, this research discovered that after some time, genetically modified plants do change the environment around them and even though they don’t require specific herbicides or insecticides, they do give in to other weeds or pests. For instance, weeds that grow around genetically modified soy develop immunity and farmers usually start using large amounts of herbicides in order to keep the situation under control.

This fact alone has a huge impact on the economy and the farming methods since farmers have to spend more money on various chemicals in order to battle this unexpected situation that can arise after years of growing genetically modified crops. On the other hand, insects are not reacting in the same way to genetically modified crops probably because they breed with other insects who do not live in the same.

The team was surprised by their findings regarding the increased usage of herbicides and the impact it has on the economy. The patterns were quite clear so dealing with this problem should definitely be the next goal of GMO researchers who develop the crops in order to reduce the weed resistance and keep the balance.

The Legacy of the GMO movement- the Flavr Savr tomato

    Each movement has its mascots and icons that are emblazoned in the minds of the public as being representative of the whole. For cloning animals it had been Dolly the sheep, for transgenic animals it had been the goats who had spider silk producing genes implanted in them to make their milk into spider silk fibers, and for the genetically modified plant movement the Flavr Savr tomato by Monsanto had become the face of what some worried was the future of their gardens.

      What the Flavr Savr tomato had hoped to accomplish in the early days would be seen as tame by the ambitions set forth by modified plants today. As the name suggests, the only alteration to the tomato had been to allow the tomato to ripen for longer on the vine, which would have hopefully resulted in a longer shelf life and a better, more full taste. This was accomplished through the deactivating of one of its processes. As the article “Tomatoes” on gmo-compass explained, the process to create the tomato was called the Antisense approach and it occurred by the deactivating of the creation of an enzyme, called polygalacturonase, that was in charge of the fruit softening.

      What ended up happening was much different, though. Though the Flavr Savr tomatoes had passed the legislation necessary to be on market back in the day, they had turned out to be a market failure, not recouping the cost of their creation and distribution. In addition to that, modified tomatoes have had a lengthy battle in the European Union, where they had trouble being passed as safe for consumption. The same article on gmo-compass states that tomato puree had been very popular in Great Britain, but that nearly all other states could not decide whether they had wanted to legalize the sale and consumption of the plant, and whether they had deemed it safe, which eventually led to the removal of all pending applications by modified crop producers. There are no modified tomatoes for sale in any markets in the EU now.

     This doesn’t mean that the tomato was a total loss. There are plenty of scientists today who are trying to figure out ways to alter the tomatoes to give them more traits like better herbicide and pesticide resistance, or a natural defense against pesticides. With the strides made in the modifying of other fruits and vegetables, there are always more options to apply to tomatoes before they are sent for approval to the market again.

      But in a young biotech industry the fact was that what captured the imagination of the public about the possibilities had been a small red tomato called the Flavr Savr. For some it was the opportunity at technology making a better life for people once again, preserving taste and serving as a gateway to a future of even better traits and possibilities for what crops could be for people around the world. The tomato had also served as a scary beacon of the overreach of science, with a new technology that was too young to be fully studied in the biological ramifications it caused to consumers and to a crossing of the natural boundaries where we weren’t meant to tread.

      The Flavr Savor became a casualty of a culture war over genetic modification the world over, but for both good and bad it cemented itself as the progenitor of what would become one of the most contested and transformative scientific movements the world had ever seen.

Source:
Gmocompass. (2016). Tomatoes. Gmo-compass. Retrieved on May 5, 2016 from http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/fruit_vegetables/15.genetically_modified_tomatoes.html

Genetically modified plants

    The aspect of genetic engineering is not something new. For a century now, farmers have depended on selective breeding techniques and cross-fertilization to alter plants and animals to give rise to particular traits that are deemed desirable. This is aimed at improvement of food production as well as human health hence creating a food secure and disease free planet. In this case, the use of biotechnology is central to achieving these goals both in the agricultural and medical system. The use of these biotechnological techniques in agriculture includes bio-fertilization; marker assisted breeding, tissue culture as well as transgenic.

    For instance, scientists have been able to utilise the traditional fermentation methods in the process of transforming grains into bread and beer; and milk to form cheese thereby contributing to food security and alleviation of poverty. Transgenic applications, on the other hand, involve the process of modifying the genetic makeup of one organism by introducing a gene of interest from another organism. This technique has been widely exploited in the modification of a wide range of plants, animals, and micro-organisms. The products of these genetically engineered plants are used as vaccines, drugs, foods, food additives, among other purposes. The biotechnological modification of these plants may be beneficial in molecular diagnostics, drug delivery approaches, and bioinformatics among other techniques beneficial to humans. Additionally, this can be used as a way of bioremediation of the surrounding environment.

GM Crops

Bt Cotton

    Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacterial toxin naturally occurring in the soil. This gene has been isolated for production of the bacterium that in turn is used for genetic modification of cotton and maize. The main reason for this kind of change is to increase their resistance to pests. Since 1997, farmers in South Africa have relied on cotton growing for their upkeep. However, since the introduction of the Bt cotton that showed pest resistance traits, over 70 % of the farmers were growing Bt cotton by the end of 2003. This led to a yield increase of over 20 % while limiting the amount of chemicals used in the control of pests.

Potatoes

    Many poor communities in developing countries cannot afford vaccines and even the local clinics in remote areas do not have the infrastructure for the appropriate storage of the vaccines. This poses a significant challenge to safeguarding the health of millions of children and adults across the globe. Scientists have exploited potatoes for the development of edible cholera vaccines against the deadly cholera disease causing severe diarrhea in patients. Part of the cholera bacterium can be recognized by the human immune system and thus could be used for development of vaccines. This gene was transferred from the bacterium and engineered into potatoes so that it is consumed as a vaccine.

    However, the primary challenge is the fact that people do not consume raw potatoes. The hope thus has been that even in cooked potatoes, the vaccine is still active and thus upon consumption, the vaccine triggered the immune system to produce antibodies against them and thus offering protection against cholera infections. This is cost effective, less labor involved and the fact that the delivery system of the vaccine into the body is not invasive.

Rice

    Research has been done in the creation of genetically modified rice with high levels of beta-carotene. This was an inspiration from the bright yellow daffodil and the mechanism it employs in the production of beta-carotene. There was evidence that rice has the molecules that are required for manufacture of bête-carotene but does not have the enzyme that rearranges in the kernels. Can rice be engineered with this gene to make it work? Researchers managed to insert the genes into two Agro-bacteriums. The bacteria were then infected on the rice, and soon Golden rice was produced carrying the three genes. Selection of the golden rice was quite easy because the rice kernels had a golden glow thus providing sufficient Vitamin A for a human health.

    Another rice project focused on improving the efficiency of CO2 to boost its productivity. This involved relying on the photosynthetic pathway of rice. The gene derived from corn was transferred into rice for the CO2 pump protein synthesis. This led to the faster growth rate of rice and over 35 % lusher grain production due to efficient utilization of CO2. This technique can also be used in the future on such plants as potatoes, wheat, and oats among other cereals that have poor CO2 efficiency.

Maize

    Years ago, farmers discovered the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) infected and killed the caterpillars that often destroyed their crops. This bacterium produces a protein that is not harmful until it transforms in the stomach of the caterpillars due to protein lock action. Scientists, therefore, came up with a way of inserting the gene that codes for the BT protein into crops such as maize to prevent destruction by caterpillars. The gene codes for the protein in the leaves of the plant and hen the caterpillars feed on the leaves, they die. This is a pesticide-resistance strategy thus protecting crops from pest destruction. This approach gave rise to GM maize resistant to parasites and thus ensuring food security in different parts of the world.

    Many people believe that GM plants are quite unnatural and thus the reason for the heated disputes and debates across the media houses around the globe. However, there are some that believe that the most promising approach is through sustainable organic farming rather than the gene revolution technological approaches. The aspect of genetic engineering of plants has paved the way for improved nutrition content of foods, improved resistance to pests by crops as well as drought resistance, It is, therefore, important that we all stop debating and tap into the DNA language of genes. This is by only learning the most beneficial ways of practicing plant genomics to catalog all genes that possess desirable traits while eliminating harmful genes. The results of which is promising in leading to the production of safe foods for human consumption, food security and poverty eradication.