Pesticides
Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved! [Reuters] But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.
Sri Lanka: Kidney Ailment Linked to Farm Chemicals [TheWorld.org]
GM corn loses its edge against pests [New Scientist]Corn rootworms are one of the most damaging agricultural pests in the US. They impair corn's ability to absorb water and nutrients from the soil, says Michael Gray of the University of Illinois in Urbana. The economic impact of the insects, in terms of crop damage and the cost of pesticides, used to be around $1 billion a year, until the biotechnology firm Monsanto introduced its rootworm-killing variety of corn in 2003.
Gray recently showed that western corn rootworms on two Illinois farms have developed resistance to Cry3Bb1, an insecticide produced by Monsanto's genetically modified YieldGard corn (PLoS One, doi.org/d5mqwn).
Sri Lanka: Kidney Ailment Linked to Farm Chemicals [TheWorld.org]
GM corn loses its edge against pests [New Scientist]Corn rootworms are one of the most damaging agricultural pests in the US. They impair corn's ability to absorb water and nutrients from the soil, says Michael Gray of the University of Illinois in Urbana. The economic impact of the insects, in terms of crop damage and the cost of pesticides, used to be around $1 billion a year, until the biotechnology firm Monsanto introduced its rootworm-killing variety of corn in 2003.
Gray recently showed that western corn rootworms on two Illinois farms have developed resistance to Cry3Bb1, an insecticide produced by Monsanto's genetically modified YieldGard corn (PLoS One, doi.org/d5mqwn).