Agriculture has just about "mapped" out every gene in the major crops of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton. (PS - You're next!) The very large agribusinesses have grabbed on to this mapping of life and placed cross-species genes into grass plants (corn) making them highly resistant to wide spectrum weedicides. Corn lives - everything else dies versus corn and weeds die. They have done this for broad leafed crops as well. One of the "organic" methods to control bugs on veggies is to use Bt fungai to infected most pests and rotted them from the inside out. It is dusted on to the crop and remains a widely accepted "certified organic" method. Now the the Bt gene has been inserted into several crops. Wondering why ? DO GMO'S MAKE FARMERS MONEY?. AP, 13 July 1999. A Washington based research group, National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, said planting modified crops does not ensure a profit. The group said Bt made corn farmers $72 million in 1997 when the cost of the technology is compared to yield gain and pesticides not used. However, it was found that GMOs cost farmers $26 million in 1998 when prices and insect infestations dropped. Farmers planted 18% of corn acres to Bt varieties in 1998. Cotton farmers in 1998 were said to have saved $92 million and planted 17% of the crop to Bt varieties. Last year four percent of the potato crop was Bt. The study said a decade would be needed to provide an accurate assessment of the contribution of new pesticide technology. At this pace of adoption all corn could be Bt ready in less than 10 years. FYI MidNight Mapper aka Neil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
