Monarchs and the Bt Transgenic Corn Pollen Scare

[Mark Walker]

Doug wrote:


Are you implying that we should not be concerned that other, threatened,
non-target leps that occur in and around agricultural land are at risk? But
how much public attention would it receive if someone announced "Some
threatened prairie moths in Illinois might get wiped out!"? Maybe the folks
at Cornell were choosing between making a totally honest announcement that
everyone would ignore, and one that was less honest, but would get
everyone's attention?

Well, I suppose that that's the point after all.  Not that there aren't some
definite environmental side affects to Bt-Corn (or any human contrived
thing, for that matter), but that misleading the public with environmental
hype in order to justify additional research funding is extremely obnoxious.
It amazes me how much of the general public (the same public that's buying
in to the current butterfly merchandising phenomenon) sincerely believes
that the Monarch butterfly is an endangered species.  Deception is a subtle
thing - it's kind of like releasing non-native butterfly species into the
wild.  It seems harmless enough at first, but then an infectious disease
breaks out for which there is no defense.  I just don't see how deceiving
the public could ever be a justifiable thing.

Mark Walker