Could millions of GM insects be released into British crop fields without safety checks?

Could millions of GM insects be released into British crop fields without safety checks?

www.dailymail.co.uk

Millions of GM insects developed by British scientists could be released into food crop fields without proper safety checks, it is claimed.

The British company Oxitec is working on genetically modified insects that are designed to kill off pests that feed on crops such as cabbages, broccoli, tomatoes and fruit.

The firm insists the technology is a green alternative to the use of chemical sprays, which have their own dangers for human health and the countryside.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

(visit the link for the full news article)

Apologies if this has been posted, I did do a search but nothing on this story came up.

The coalition of public interest groups challenging the effectiveness of the safety regime includes GeneWatch UK, TestBiotech, SwissAid, Berne Declaration, and Corporate Europe Observatory.

The group complained: ‘Plans to commercialise GM insects would result in many millions of GM insects being released in fields of crops, including olives, tomatoes, citrus fruits, cabbages and cotton.


'In future, any insect species might be genetically modified.’


They claim that Oxitec has lobbied to ensure that experts who support the use of GM insects have been appointed to

key committees set up by the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA).

Oxitec chief executive, Hadyn Parry, accused the groups of scaremongering.

‘To assert that a small company of our size can bias and subvert regulatory processes around the world in some kind of Machiavellian way is pure conspiracy theory nonsense,’ he said.

‘We are a company with a high scientific reputation and we hope people will see what we are doing in terms of the protection of human health.


There are also huge environmental benefits in terms of the reduction of pesticide use.’

As with GM food itself, the whole argument balances on the fact they this is safe for humans and will not cause problems.

IMO, nature should be left alone, natural animals and insects can cause problems, if they miscalculate the dangers, what could be the consequences of alien (GM) insects?

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

*sigh* when will the silly human race learn to stop messing with the balance of nature. It always end up having unforseen consequences, and usually ends up being way worse then the "problem" they were trying to solve. We are such a stupid species......

Indeed it would appear we have re-entered a very dark age, but not one without hope...
_______________________________________________________
THE LAST TIME AROUND
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"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." ~Genesis 6:5

"Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female." ~Genesis 7:2

"When the gods felt strong enough they killed Ymir. His blood flooded the world and drowned all of the jötunn, except two. But jötnar grew again in numbers and soon there were as many as before Ymir's death." ~Wikipedia, Abiogenesis and anthropogenesis, Norse Mythology

"Then he sent forth the winds he had brought forth, the seven of them.
To stir up the inside of Tiamat they rose up behind him.
Then the lord raised up the flood-storm, his mighty weapon.
He mounted the storm-chariot irresistible and terrifying. (50)" ~Marduk vs. Tiamat, the Enuma Elish

"And he [Noah] sent forth a Raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." ~Genesis 8:7

"The Raven in Creation is the trickster and creator in the traditional creation stories of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

One version of the Raven creation story begins when Raven was taught by his father, Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa to be a creator, but Raven was unsatisfied with the product. Raven created the world but was unable to give it light or water. On hearing that light could be found hidden in a far off land, Raven decided he would travel there and steal it. When he discovered that dwelling in the house of light was a young woman who lived there with her father, he played the first of many tricks.

He turned himself into a small speck of dirt and slipped into her drinking water and was swallowed. This made the daughter pregnant, and she gave birth to an unusual and fussy child who cried demanding to touch one of the bundles which had been stored hanging from the walls.

The child was given one of the bags to quiet him, but when tired of playing with it he let it go, and it floated away from him and disappeared through the smoke hole. Once it reached the sky the bundle came undone and scattered stars across the sky. When the child cried to have it back again he was given the second bundle to play with, and he let it to float away through the hole in the ceiling, and it released the moon. This would happen again with the third and last bundle, which flew away and became sunlight. After Raven's tricks succeeded in bringing all the light to the world, he flew away through the smoke hole." ~Wikipedia, Raven Creation Myth, Tlingit Legend

"Various myths are told of how people were created and Raven is often thought more as their reconstructor than a creator. In one myth Raven mated with a sea shell and nine months later heard voices coming from it. When he opened the shell to investigate he discovered he had fathered tiny human beings living inside. A variant account describes Raven as a passerby who freed the scared and timid beings inside the shell who were first men of the world.[3] When he bored of them, he considered returning them to their shell, but opted instead to find female counterparts of these male beings. The raven found some female humans trapped in a chiton, freed them, and was entertained as the two sexes met and began to interact. The raven felt responsible and very protective of them, thus many Haida myths and legends often suggest the raven as a provider to mankind.[citation needed]

In another recorded version of Raven creation, when an earlier people were all killed by a flood he created new ones from leaves.[4]"

reply to post by Wonderer2012

...The firm insists the technology is a green alternative...

GM a "green alternative"?!

My aunt fanny's big fat butt.

Originally posted by Wonderer2012

The group complained: ‘Plans to commercialise GM insects would result in many millions of GM insects being released in fields of crops, including olives, tomatoes, citrus fruits, cabbages and cotton.

That's just stupid! ...When they've done their job and they have decimated the pests they are created to eat they will seek another food source (or turn vegetarian and eat the crops themselves).

Bear in mind this comes from the Daily Mail..THE worst reporting around. Lots of pretty pictures and little in depth reporting.

Maximise profits and keep on feeding the fatties, that's the bottom line.

This is insane and iresponsible IMO.
Why?
Because this company CANNOT know what the introduction of these GM insects will cause in the future.
This could cause the next major pandemic-how do we know otherwise,as nothing like this has been tried yet?
Insanity is allowed it seems,when there is profit involved.

As an Entomologist...

I felt obligated to reply to this thread... The genetic modification of Plutella xylostella may be a necessary one. I am not often an advocate of GM for any use however they are an extremely destructive insect and like the mosquito are in need of a large population reduction. The fact that they are heavily resistant to pesticides in the first place is a concern especially since the resistance (like this GMO) is bred through the population.

That that said I have some concerns.. There are other means to eradicate moth populations would modifying their genetic outliers and impose a self destruct gene which could result in an eventual species wide infertility (not to mention possible eventual extinction as a direct result). We also cannot forget another GM insect species (africanized honey bees).

There have been other methods proposed that could perpetuate similar ends as GM such as the introduction of Wintercress as a crop buffer plant as the Diamondback moth is attracted to these plants and their pupal/larval instars have serious trouble surviving with this host plant. Perhaps increasing the population of already predatory insects/arachnids could be an alternative solution.. However then we have the problem of predators targeting the wrong insect species which may include pollinators.

Perhaps the introduction of parasitoids to the moth population would cull their numbers without having to modify their genetic code.. However here we run into the same problem as introducing predatory insects however less so as parasitoids generally target specific larval variations which would include a smaller number of insect species.

To be honest no matter which way you go it's a catch 22 as it always is when you attempt to change mother nature for your own ends.. I do however believe there are alternatives that should be tested further before even thinking about sterilizing and entire population of insects.

As someone who vacuums up thousands of asian lady beetles every year this concerns me.

When they released these things they said they only ate cotton aphids, and once those were gone they would just die.

Well since nature doesn't work that way we now have these buggers everywhere.

To me it's like saying if you closed the local cafe everyone would just die of strarvation instesad of just finding a new cafe.

Australia has had the worst luck with intriducing species to try and control another one.


It's just a bad idea.

Here's an interesting PDF into the biotech company in this new story-

www.genewatch.org...

Tax payer funded

Open field trials in the Cayman Islands
Oxitec conducted its first open field trials of any RIDL insect in the Cayman Islands, a
British Overseas Territory. A small trial of Oxitec’s RIDL strain OX513A of Aedes aegypti
mosquito was conducted in late 2009 and a larger release from May to October 2010,
following funding from the Wellcome Trust and in collaboration with the Mosquito
Research and Control Unit of Grand Cayman (MRCU).95 These are the first releases of
GM mosquitoes anywhere in the world and have been conducted without proper public
debate, ethical oversight or parliamentary or scientific scrutiny.

Here's another article as well-

www.guardian.co.uk...

So the company has already released GM mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands.

It works by giving the male mosquito a 'lethal gene' which means they need a certain antibiotic to survive. They grow them with this antibiotic and when they reach adulthood release them into the wild.

Once in the wild, the GM mosquito mates with the female and the offspring dies because they do not have the antibiotic required to survive.

One of the first concerns that comes to mind is if the female that has mated bites a human- would this GM gene be transfered to humans? Would the larvae that dies be eaten by other insects and spread that way?

There are far too many unanswered questions to just do this without trials and proper testing. These people are playing God with nature.

Originally posted by Wonderer2012


Once in the wild, the GM mosquito mates with the female and the offspring dies because they do not have the antibiotic required to survive.

One of the first concerns that comes to mind is if the female that has mated bites a human- would this GM gene be transfered to humans? Would the larvae that dies be eaten by other insects and spread that way?

There are far too many unanswered questions to just do this without trials and proper testing. These people are playing God with nature.

edit on 12-11-2012 by Wonderer2012 because: (no reason given)

Actually scientists know the answers to those questions......just because YOU don't know anything about genetics, doesn't mean other people don't know. The answers to your questions are no, that is not possible.

It accused critics of scaremongering and said there is zero chance of its insects being used on farms without thorough checks on all aspects of their safety.

However, a new report from GM critics and public interest groups argues food watchdogs in Britain, Europe and beyond are failing to put in place a thorough testing and safety regime. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

So basically the scientists DID test the insects for safety, but organizations that either oppose anything GM, or are uneducated in scientific matters, are claiming they didn't do enough safety checks.

Can we not breed and release non GM versions of the natural versions of predator insects against the bugs we wish to get rid of?

That was the old way-you could buy a bag of ladybirds(ladybugs in USA)to sort out your aphid problem...
Now,they want you to buy GM versions.

Sorry,no one owns nature.
This is another major BS con brought to you by the mega corps.

But if they do this,will their GM bugs breed with our normal bugs?
Will something terrible occur as a result?

Maybe not,but its possible,and they do not care.
They want quick profit,screw the long term.

reply to post by DaMod


africanized honey bees are not GM insects they bred naturally with european honeybees they not genetically modified.

reply to post by hawkiye


Meh.. Ok well they are a hybrid.. which is still a genetic alteration through breeding..

Picky picky

Originally posted by DaMod
reply to post by hawkiye

 

Meh.. Ok well they are a hybrid.. which is still a genetic alteration through breeding..

Picky picky

edit on 12-11-2012 by DaMod because: (no reason given)

Damn right picky picky hybrids are species that are compatible who breed. GM is inserting genes that do not belong like Insect genes in tomatoes or spider genes in bees or genes that produce pesticides in corn etc. it will cause a catastrophic failure in the food supply eventually and god knows what with insects now.

could? HA id bet there are already numerous GM insects world wide let alone hybrids of humans in underwater bases. we keep finding new species or "lost" species of insects, how do we know they were not brought back jurassic park style with some added benefits with GM assistance.

Originally posted by Ghost375

Originally posted by Wonderer2012


Once in the wild, the GM mosquito mates with the female and the offspring dies because they do not have the antibiotic required to survive.

One of the first concerns that comes to mind is if the female that has mated bites a human- would this GM gene be transfered to humans? Would the larvae that dies be eaten by other insects and spread that way?

There are far too many unanswered questions to just do this without trials and proper testing. These people are playing God with nature.

edit on 12-11-2012 by Wonderer2012 because: (no reason given)

Actually scientists know the answers to those questions......just because YOU don't know anything about genetics, doesn't mean other people don't know. The answers to your questions are no, that is not possible.

I guess GM insects are good to go then.

reply to post by Wonderer2012


this is why growing your own in your backyard or in an open field is doomed to failure.

THEY [monsteranto, et al] will contaminate your food, and then try to sue you, using GMO pollen, or these GMO robotbugs which easily serve as a delivery system you can't blow away with your shotgun for trespassing, good luck attempting to sue them with their bloodstained billions on your budget.

the solution is aquaponics in a closed building with proper airfiltering and other measures, of course, unfortunatley, buying an abandoned aircraft hangar or even one of those underground facilities, even at an auction is beyond most folks budgets, so you're forced to start small if at all, of course your freindly neighborhood swat team will then come along and bust open your "grow operation" to contamination.

one simply must adopt an attitude that most will call paranoid: that you are at war with these corporations and the state
regarding matters of human and personal survival and those things nescesary to that end, namely food, water, air, medical care, etc.

and proceed to engage in guerilla warfare.

look into the "discredited" work of Dr Royal Rife, especially in regards to MOR [mortal oscillatory rate] for proper tools for dealing with GMO products and contamination educate-yourself.org...
[scroll to about halfway down the page]

Dr. Royal Rife
In the late 20's and early 1930's, Dr. Royal Raymond Rife from San Diego, California, developed a high powered microscope which he used in conjunction with a frequency generator. Using special UV light, Rife's mircroscope was capable of 60,000x magnification! This degree of magnification allowed him to observe LIVE virus and bacteria organisms while he applied the MOR (Mortal Oscillatory Resonance) frequency from his frequency generator via plasma tube radiation of the energy. He was able to destroy all manner of disease organisms (including cancer related organisms) by merely 'tuning' the generator to the correct resonant frequency of these organisms and applying the oscillating electric fields via the plasma driven, "Beam Ray Tube". Everything in the universe, living or dead, and its own resonant frequency. If you apply this exact resonant frequency to the object or organism, it will begin vibrating until it literally shatters itself. You've all seen the wine glass and the opera singer demonstration. Same deal for microbes.

60,000x magnifications is an unheard of degree of magnification in a light microscope, even by today's technical standards. Today's electron microscope can deliver high magnification, but it can only view DEAD organisms. The ability to view micro organims in a LIVING state is of great importance to diagnostic and therapeutic goals. This is an extremely important point to understand.

Rife's microscope played no role in the actual destruction of the pathogenic organisms, but it allowed him to view the effects of the electric fields from the Beam Ray Tube upon the organism itself. As Rife adjusted and tuned his frequency generator to the correct frequency, he was able to observe the disintegration of the bacteria, parasite, or virii under the influence of the resonant electro-magnetic fields exerted by the Beam Ray Tube.

At first, Rife's enormous accomplishments were ballyhooed in the press. He was feted and hosted by the local medical elites of the day who were hoping to climb onto the Glory Bandwagon with him and get their mug published in the newspaper as a supporter and cohort of the "man who could finally end cancer". But the Big Boys finally caught up with him. I'm referring to the string pullers in organized medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. Needless to say, once word of Rife's success began to spread too wide, he was quickly 'neutralized' by organized medicine and demoralized into obscurity (unending court litigation, charges of quakery, intimidation of financial supporters, the burning down of laboratories, etc...the "usual' routine). His principle persecutor was the head of the American Medical Association and chief editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. His name was Dr. Morris Fishbein educate-yourself.org... and he never treated a patient in his life. He was motivated more by an unmitigated lust for greed and power, and less by a desire to save lives. Failing to convince Rife to sell him the exclusive rights to his technique and therapy, Fishbein set out to crush Rife with a vengence. The outrageous injustices against Rife by Fishbein and the medical establishment are explained in great depth in a book by Barry Lynes called The Cancer Cure That Worked.

www.educate-yourself.org...

edit: also disregard the smarmingly patronizing "scientists know all the answers BS"
examples of the contrary for the last 2 decades alone would crash the site.
never mind that the science of biology KNOWS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it's purported subject matter: LIFE, cannot define it properly, without recourse to running and circles
and whenever their predictions and models fail they always cry out: "nobody could have predicted this"
LL