There are 7 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #4 by Helium's members.
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The end of the human race brought on by genetically modified organisms will not benefit the poorest of the poor, or the richest of the rich. If this sounds like a drastic statement, well, that's because it is!
The human race has survived famine, blight and all other forms of crop failure, sometimes at great expense, but we are still alive and kicking on our blue planet. The short and long term effects of genetically modified organisms (Also know as "genetically engineered") in crop management pose a control nightmare, as well as the possible end of us as we know us.
Bees, it's the fault of those pesky bees. Bees fly from crop to crop pollinating. Fat and fuzzy and happy to do their work saving the world in their little superhero garb, they haven't learned that dragging pollen from a genetically modified crop down the lane to a natural crop has the potential to put their friendly local beekeeper and farmer in a bind. In many areas of the world, companies or farmers planting genetically modified crops do not have notify neighboring farmers or beekeepers that there is a genetically modified crop nearby. A farmer selling to the "Genetically Modified Free Market" might not even know his happy pollinators have infected his crop.
Research into honey has found that bees can pass proteins from nectar unchanged into honey. Genetically modified genes in some plants may contain genes which provide resistance to commonly used antibiotics. That poses quite a different health scenario. It could leave us unable to treat major illnesses and create superbugs and I don't mean of the buzzing variety.
Let's fast forward to the part about the end of the human race, back to the bees again. Given that almost every bite of food that we eat has a superhero pollinator, and that we send food to poor countries, wiping out the pollinators is a sure way to bring about our end. The bees might have already figured this part out. A recent study showed that bees had little interest in pollinating genetically modified crops. The study, initially published by the Ecological Society of America before being picked up in Italy, looked at pollination and the response of wild bees to organic, conventional and genetically modified rapeseed crops. It measured the abundance of bees and the pollination deficit, which is the difference between potential and actual pollination. The results showed no pollination deficit in organic fields, a slight pollination deficit in conventional fields and a high pollination
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Genetically modified organisms will benefit not only the world's poorest people, but everyone else as well. Already there
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