Does Bt pollen spread?

[Stelenes at aol.com]

"When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of 
the world" (John Muir)

There have been positive and negative comments regarding the Bt modified 
corn.  Can someone who is against Bt-corn please comment on the following?

Bt strains of bacteria were "discovered" in 1901.  10 years later their 
insecticidal properties were apparently demonstrated, and the organism was 
scientifically described.  By the 1930's they began commercial use as 
insecticides, according to what I read somewhere.

So is the cause that Bt use should cease and desist or is it that it should 
not be delivered in GMO's?  How it is delivered seems to me to have no 
relationship whatsoever to the resistances that some worry could be a problem 
and need to be investigated further.

Stopping widespread Bt use would stomp out a few lucrative industries, 
including, interestingly enough, the organically grown foods industry.

Can someone clarify this?

Best wishes.

Doug Dawn.
Monterrey, Mexico
San Francisco, CA





In a message dated 5/27/99 9:20:52 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
bsandle at southern.co.nz writes:

> Paul Cherubini <paulcher at concentric.net> wrote:
>  : SueJensen wrote:
>  
>  :> Excuse me??  'Round-up Ready' soy and rapeseed don't sound to me like
>  :> products designed to reduce conventional pesticide use.
>  
>  : You're right, Roudup herbicide use within the corn (and other) crops is
>  : likely to go up.
>  : But Roundup herbicide is not a bug killer and does not poison the soil
>  : or water.
>  
>     Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 1996 Feb;56(2):295-302
>     
>  Biochemical and histopathological effects of glyphosate on carp, Cyprinus
>  carpio L.
>  [...]
>  Literature of toxicological and ecotoxicological properties
>     of glyphosate is extremely sparse, considering its importance as
>     herbicide.
>  [...]
>   
>  
>     J Environ Sci Health B 1995 Jul;30(4):513-34
>     
>  Toxic effects of carbofuran and glyphosate on semen characteristics in 
>  rabbits.
>  [...]
>  These effects on sperm
>     quality may be due to the direct cytotoxic effects of these pesticides
>     on spermatogenesis and/or indirectly via hypothalami-pituitary-testis
>     axis which control the reproductive efficiency.
>  [...]
>  
>  :> If you work in this area, Paul, why don't you go for a career change? 
>  
>  : Well I may have to because these genetically modified crops will result
>  : in big reductions in the use of conventional insecticides I sell.
>  
>  Or else as resistance builds you may end up selling a whole lot more.
>  
>   Maybe
>  : God might spare me a few hundred years in hell if I changed careers and
>  : did something good for bugs instead of killing them. Like raise
>  : butterflies for a living. But wait!  How many people on this list think
>  : its OK to raise and release common butterflies like monarchs and painted
>  : ladies for a living?
>  
>  : Maybe if I just went and got a decent government job, wrote butterfly
>  : books, became an environmental defense lawyer or went around begging for
>  : grants to make a living I would somehow be environmentally "pure" in
>  : everyones eyes?
>  
>  Eco tourism has been a rising industry.
>  
>  I hear you in a few years going around with tail between legs telling
>  people that if only we had stuck to conventional pesticides used in the
>  proper way that.... 
>  
>  
>  
>  ----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
>  Return-Path: <owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
>  Received: from  rly-yh02.mx.aol.com (rly-yh02.mail.aol.com 
[172.18.147.34]) 
> by air-yh05.mail.aol.com (v59.24) with SMTP; Thu, 27 May 1999 12:20:52 -0400
>  Received: from  growl.pobox.com (growl.pobox.com [208.210.124.27]) by rly-
> yh02.mx.aol.com (vx) with SMTP; Thu, 27 May 1999 12:20:42 -0400
>  Received: from gr.its.yale.edu (gr.its.yale.edu [130.132.21.78])
>  	by growl.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 545058B79
>  	for <stelenes at pobox.com>; Thu, 27 May 1999 12:20:40 -0400 (EDT)
>  Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
>            by gr.its.yale.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP
>  	  id MAA12965; Thu, 27 May 1999 12:08:48 -0400 (EDT)
>  Received: from clark.pathlink.com (clark.pathlink.com [165.113.238.170])
>            by gr.its.yale.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP
>  	  id MAA12956 for <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>; Thu, 27 May 1999 12:08:36 
-0400 (
> EDT)
>  Received: (from news at localhost)
>  	by clark.pathlink.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id IAA34077
>  	for leps-l at lists.yale.edu; Thu, 27 May 1999 08:50:23 -0700 (PDT)
>  	(envelope-from newsgate at newsguy.com)
>  Received: from GATEWAY by enews with netnews
>  	for leps-l at lists.yale.edu (leps-l at lists.yale.edu)
>  To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu
>  Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 15:44:38 GMT
>  From: Brian Sandle <bsandle at southern.co.nz>
>  Message-ID: <927819878.605924 at mnementh.southern.co.nz>
>  Organization: Southern Internet Services
>  Sender: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu
>  References: <374B9CDB.3A1B at concentric.net>, <7iimae$232$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>, 
<
> 374CFEE6.31DA at concentric.net>
>  Subject: Re: Does Bt pollen spread?
>  Reply-To: bsandle at southern.co.nz
>  X-Sender: newsgate at newsguy.com
>  X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.2 -- ListProc(tm) by CREN
>  
>