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http://news.cornell.edu/stories/1999/04/toxic-pollen-bt-corn-can-kill-monarch-butterflies http://news.cornell.edu/stories/1999/04/toxic-pollen-bt-corn...

• thaumaturgy 9y ago
  Okay, so pollen from Bt corn is lethal to monarch butterfly caterpillars. Meanwhile, pesticides are killing off 75% of all flying insects. I like monarchs, but if I had to choose between a world with no monarchs, and a world with no monarchs and also just 25% of the flying insect biomass we had 30 years ago and also fewer birds and everything else that consumes insects and all of the beneficial pollination that those 75% of insects would have accounted for ... well, that seems like a pretty easy choice to me. Gene editing would also provide an avenue for a different approach here, where the crop could be made resistant to its costliest pests without harming monarchs. Good luck doing that through cross-breeding.
  • AstralStorm 9y ago
    But can we live in a world where food is 1000% though? That would be the result of getting rid of pesticides and insecticides...