Would You Like Some Frankenrice With Your Chinese Takeout?

Bt rice (4.00 / 1)

China is growing itself quite a reputation as a food exporter.

The Reuters article raises questions. First, the article doesn't report a claim that the rice will reduce pesticide use by 80%.

Bt rice, developed by Huazhong Agricultural University, would help reduce the use of pesticide by 80 percent while raising yields by as much as 8 percent, said Huang Jikun, the chief scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In bureaucratic weaselese, perhaps he means that Bt rice might reduce chemical pesticide application by 80% when it is combined with other unspecified measures. Nevertheless, both statements, about pesticide use reduction and productin increase, are contradicted by experience with other crops in other countries.

The Bt toxin is fatal to desirable insects as well as undesirable insects.

Is the European corn borer a major threat to rice? See commodities other than corn.

European corn borer is not only a major pest on all types of corn, but it also causes losses in several other crops. For some crops subjected to unusually high infestations, the economic losses can amount to hundreds of dollars per acre. Larvae of European corn borer infest more than 200 species of plants. Research has been ongoing in its ecology, genetics, and diversity, and in how to manage it. Studies indicate that European corn borer is one of the most adaptable and hard to predict insects. Thus, adaptation to new hosts is constantly occurring and impact on its current crop hosts seems to change constantly. This broadly diverse species also continues to evolve new genetic strains that present new problems and challenges to scientists.

Also see the other crops page. The corn borer might be a major rice pest, but it doesn't seem so. Perhaps that Iowa citation is occidental specific and doesn't present the picture in China. If the corn borer is not a major rice pest, though, is Bt rice resistant to the major economic pests? I don't know, but that 80% number might be wildly over-hyped.

Bt field corn is claimed not to be a threat to humans in the U.S. because it is used only to produce corn oil (and corn syrup and HFCS?) and the toxin protein isn't in those products. (The toxin protein is in corn or meal fed to livestock of course.) In rice, however, humans that eat it will be consuming the toxin protein unless it expresses only in the stalk and leaves, not in the grain kernel (or unless all the rice is used for rice vinegar? Fat chance.)

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by: count @ Fri Nov 27, 2009 at 17:51:56 PM UTC

Bt is not harmful to (4.00 / 1)

any living being with an acid gut.  Caterpillars have an alkali digestive system, when Bt's come into contact with the alkali they crystallizes resulting in the physical death of the pest; Bt's do not contain poison.

http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu...

The problems with putting Bt's into crops is that the insects that lay the eggs, from which the caterpillars spring, like all insects mutate around the Bt when it's used repeatedly.  Organic farmers who spray Bt's have learned to rotate between different Bt's to avoid this problem.  

In the conventional world the same crop is planted over and over again with some token rotation. There is very little opportunity to disrupt an infestation of any kind; it won't take too many years long before Bt crops destroy the viability of Bt's by over exposure. That is the real threat from Bt corn or rice.  I'm sure Monsanto has an entire line of GMO Bt's to sell farmers once the insects evolve around the naturally occurring bacteria.

If you want to be worried about something ask yourself why there hasn't been one story on the aflatoxin problem in this years corn harvest.  Wet season with late wet harvesting are the perfect conditions for aflatoxin.  Several years ago much of the food grade corn that tested positive, ended up on the shelves in Mexico.

Aflatoxin may be not be as sexy as trashing GMO's, but it's really killing people in the here and now.

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by: OrganicGeorge @ Fri Nov 27, 2009 at 21:05:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Capital Press had an article on aflatoxin in this year's corn crop (4.00 / 1)

a couple of weeks ago. That's the only mention I'm aware of in print media. The article said that aflatoxin was hurting sales of corn for livestock feed.

Bt crops are supposed to have non Bt crops planted with them, but farmers have been slacking on that lately. There was an article on that in the Capital Press too, several weeks ago. Apparently the Bt corn farmers aren't being bird dogged as well as they should be.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 00:28:33 AM UTC

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supposed to have non Bt crops planted with them (4.00 / 1)

I've been thinking that this idea probably is a crock of crap propaganda. First, 20% is a number some genius pulled out of a dream. No research exists showing 20% is a useful number, or a number with any margin of safety. Why not 10% or 75%? Second, at best, refuge crops can only slow down the spread of resistance, not stop it. Third, the idea of refuge crops seem as likely to hasten the spread of resistance as to inhibit it.

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by: count @ Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 08:49:24 AM UTC

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you folks are impossible to please (0.00 / 0)

do any one of you that are so critical ACTUALLY make a LIVING as a producer or farmer?  i doubt it....

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a naturally-occurring microorganism (soil bacterium) that produces proteins that kills any grub or insect that ingests it by paralyzing the bug's digestive system.

Bt is nontoxic to people, pets and the environment. It also doesn't kill beneficial insects or their natural enemies (predators and parasites), or beneficial pollinators like butterflies or honeybees.

to claim in weasel words that its a pesticide in perhaps the same realm of organosphates etc is ridiculous.

better not eat any organic veggies either since Bt is approved for organic production.  

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by: bud dingler @ Fri Nov 27, 2009 at 20:55:54 PM UTC

Where to start? (4.00 / 1)

We loves us our ancient citations. We love unsubstantiated and incorrect assertions without citation even more.

Bt's {sic} do not contain poison.

We wouldn't be having this disussion if Bt proteins weren't poison.

...when Bt's {sic} come into contact with the alkali they crystallizes resulting in the physical death of the pest

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but definitely, I am not interested in the spiritual death of pests. Physical death is what it's all about. It might be worth noting, however, that George misread his own source. In the non-transgenic world, some Bt proteins are crystalline (and inactive) in the bacteria. Those proteins are solubilized (de-crystalized) and are activated in alkaline media.

Bt is not harmful to any living being with an acid gut.

Where's the evidence for that sweeping generalization? A great many proteins and proteinaceous enzymes thrive in acid environments, thank you very much!

I'm sure Monsanto has an entire line of GMO Bt's {sic} to sell farmers once the insects evolve around the naturally occurring bacteria.

Neither Monsanto nor any other biotech organization has or ever will have any GMO Bt line that will be effective after the pests evolve around the naturally occurring bacteria. They might develop seeds that express a trait that kills bugs, but it won't be a Bt line by definition.

you folks are impossible to please

Not true. I love chocolate pot de creme, buttered popcorn made the old fashioned way, imaginative sex, and mushrooms.

Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a naturally-occurring microorganism (soil bacterium) that produces proteins that kills any grub or insect that ingests it by paralyzing the bug's digestive system.

Not true. No Bt protein and no group of Bt proteins kills or results in the death of any grub or insect that ingests it. And paralyzing a bug's digestive system is only one mode of fatality.

It also doesn't kill beneficial insects or their natural enemies (predators and parasites), or beneficial pollinators like butterflies or honeybees.

C'mon. The concept that an insect can be classified as bad if a Bt protein is fatal to it and good if it resists one or more or all of the Bt poisons is just weird. And what does this have to do with rice, anyway?

to claim in weasel words that its a pesticide in perhaps the same realm of organosphates etc is ridiculous.

Did someone do that? Not me. Not Jill.

better not eat any organic veggies either since Bt is approved for organic production.

Bt proteins are externally applied in organic production. They aren't an integral part of the food fed to livestock and humans.

I tire. I went for a walk this afternoon. We're midst a major weather system change, and I walked against major headwinds for a couple of hours. Before I sign off, though, I'll note that George's comments about Bt resistance are on target and worthy of a diary. George?

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by: count @ Fri Nov 27, 2009 at 23:14:17 PM UTC

I'll second the suggestion of a diary on Bt (4.00 / 3)

As someone who used Bt on some of my crops last summer/fall, and who would like to know more about the bacillus and its uses to control pests on row crops, I'd be very interested in a diary on the topic.

For instance, does Bt affect grubs only or does it affect adult insects?

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 01:06:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

grubs and adults (4.00 / 1)

The grub thing is in the U.S. popular imagination because of our focus on corn and the corn borer, whose larvae are the bad actors. Various Bt proteins affect insects differently, and various insects are affected at different stages.

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by: count @ Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 09:03:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm not sure (4.00 / 1)

but I think the thing about Bt is that it's fine for use on crops like you're doing it bc it breaks down in a few days and because you can apply it selectively. That's a big difference from a plant that produces it in every cell, all the time.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 21:58:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]