Originally published July 20 2015
New GMO wheat immediately fails experiments despite millions of dollars invested in biotech
by Jennifer Lilley
(NaturalNews) What's it going to take for GMO proponents to realize that efforts to alter food are not only damaging to health but are wasting millions of dollars... money which could otherwise be spent on preserving the planet instead of destroying it?
Sadly, it's a routine that many people are compelled to tinker with, sinking big bucks in an effort to modify the foods you eat. It recently reared its ugly head when researchers from Rothamsted Research in England spent more than $4.6 million on a project dubbed "whiffy wheat." Designed with the hopes of emitting an odor to deter crop-destroying aphids, it was initially successful in the laboratory environment. However, when tested outdoors, pests such as blackfly and greenfly didn't respond as hoped and still ruined the crops. It's a finding that's been discovered time and again: GM crops don't work, and often fail to keep pests away any more than conventionally grown foods.(1)
The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports in June 2015. Titled "The first crop plant genetically engineered to release an insect pheromone for defence," it blatantly states that the project was a failure. The journal notes the following:
Aphid infestation levels in field plot trials were recorded on a weekly basis throughout the growing season in spring 2012, and in spring and autumn 2013. In both years, there was no significant difference in aphid populations between the plots with untransformed and transformed wheat. The number of parasitized aphids was not different between treatments.(2)
An "epidemic of herbicide-resistant superweeds"
This is hardly a startling find for many individuals, including the campaign group GM Freeze. They stress the importance of letting nature unfold as it should. Responding to this failed GM wheat experiment, Liz O'Neill, GM Freeze's director, said, "A basic understanding of evolution tell us that GM offers, at best, a sticking-plaster approach to complex and evolving problems. We know that pests are very good at adapting to their environment but, like the aphids in the trial, those promoting GM as the first-choice solution to our food and farming needs stopped listening to nature's alarm signals as soon as they became inconvenient."(3)
She went on to say that the trial was a waste of money and that such tactics are worsening situations instead of improving them. It's disturbing that, even though over 40,000 similar trials have been conducted worldwide, the only thing that's resulted are problems. Of commercially viable GM crops and herbicide-tolerant crops, O'Neill said, "Their use has caused an epidemic of herbicide-resistant superweeds."(3)
Meanwhile, we can imagine senior molecular biologist Professor Hew Jones, who worked on the trial, sitting with his head in his hands. "As scientists we are trained to treat our experimental data objectively and dispassionately, but I was definitely disappointed," Jones said. "We had hoped that this technique would offer a way to reduce the use of insecticides in pest control in arable farming. As so often happens, this experiment shows that the real world environment is much more complicated than the laboratory."(1)
Mad scientists still determined to destroy the planet and waste money
Well, Hew, that's probably because the real world environment and the laboratory setting ARE two completely different places not meant to overlap in the first place. Just a thought.
Still, GMO proponents are adamant that persistence is key, even if millions of dollars are wasted or lives are harmed. For example, it's no secret that Monsanto's GM corn (and use of their Roundup, of course) is linked to the development of tumors in rats. By now, most of us are aware of the World Health Organization's designation of Roundup's glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans." It's not new information that all of these mad scientist ideas are seeping into the soil and runoff, being ingested by animals and plants that we may eat. Let's not forget that failed GM crops are destroying many farmer's livelihoods and also threatening organic farmers whose crops are sometimes contaminated.(4,5)
All of the lab testing, spraying and changing of our environment is throwing our ecosystem and health out of whack. Unfortunately, many researchers and corporations refuse to see the truth. Instead, they drive the nail deeper, determined to control that which was never meant to be controlled.
Sources:
(1) http://rt.com
(2) http://www.nature.com
(3) http://www.gmfreeze.org
(4) http://planetearthherald.com
(5) http://www.naturalnews.com
http://www.truthwiki.org/The_Green_Revolutio...
http://www.truthwiki.org/seeds_of_death_unve...
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