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Date: | Wed, 17 Mar 2021 17:16:12 -0400 |
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The following was a snip from an email detailing the issue with Bt corn now not being effective against corn rootworm:
"Next: RNAi Pesticides
Pesticide companies, including the biggest biotechnology seed companies Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta, are developing “gene-silencing pesticides” that exploit a cellular process called RNA interference (RNAi). These pesticides are intended to switch off or “silence” genes that are essential for survival in pests, thus killing them. Rather than being a genetically modified plant, gene-silencing pesticides are designed to be applied as an external product that will modify exposed organisms in the open environment. Organisms may start out their lives as non-GMO and then be modified by the spray.
Gene-silencing RNAi pesticides would be applied to entire fields. For example, RNAi could be applied as a foliar spray on leaves. After the pest eats the leaves, interfering RNA enters the insect’s stomach and silences a gene that is essential for cell division, following which, the pest cannot make functioning new cells and dies. Read the factsheet and report on these new pesticides, from Friends of the Earth U.S."
Questions I have:
1. If there is an RNAi pesticide for corn rootworm, why don't we have one for Varroa?
2. Will the pollen and nectar RNAi treated crop be safe for honey bees and other pollinators?
I am all for genetically modification IF the wider effects are taken into account.
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