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Produce => Pests & Diseases => Topic started by: picman on December 15, 2011, 12:49:11
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Not sure if I have seen this chap... opens up a whole new chapter in crop pests...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2074319/Frankenmoth-Health-fears-plans-release-millions-GM-insects-designed-destroy-pests.html
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I'm suspicious...
Cane Toads and rabbits were bad enough... :-X
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it'll just increase the numbers of cabbage whites and other insects.
you only get an epidemic if the host species is in epidemic proportions itself.
the only way to reduce numbers of pests that attack cabbages etc is to reducethe numbers of cabbage :-[
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There could well be some other animal that relies on these for part of it's diet - even something that's beneficial to us or that preys on other pests but needs these moths for a critical time in it's life cycle. Has this been researched? I couldn't tell.
Having said that, I think it's wonderful that such technology exists, and I believe that rather than saying "all GM is bad" we should look at each case on it's merits. Can we do that objectively? Probably not, very few politicians are scientists - they argue like people with politics degrees instead of discussing evidence to reach a logical conclusion.
The likes of Friends of the Earth and the GM companies have so much at steak, they will both take polarised views when the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
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If the things are incapable of reproduction there's probably not much harm. But I'm concerned about reports of long-term damage caused by GM crops. Testing tends to look at the short-term not the effects of chronic exposure over years or decades.