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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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Tue, 17 Sep 2019 10:51:28 -0400
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If you dig deeper, you find

Jay Evans at the US agriculture department, an entomologist and beekeeper, admires Beye’s work, but thinks his breakthrough GM bee should remain confined to the lab. “The road to making a superbee looks really long to me, and probably not necessary,” he said. “I don’t see the justification.” Designing a truly pesticide-resistant honeybee, a “bulletproof bee”, as Evans calls them, would “throw a lot of nature under the bus”.

“I go to beekeepers’ meetings all the time. They’re suffering. They’re trying to keep their operations afloat. They’re desperate for a new solution, or technology, or regulation. Anything,” he says. But there’s consensus on what they don’t want. “When I talk to a group, I talk a lot about genetics. And occasionally they’ll say: ‘Are you making a transgenic bee, one of those Frankenbees?’”

Meanwhile ... Insect Allies, a $45m research project sponsored by Darpa, the US Department of Defense’s military research department ... proposes using insects to carry immune-boosting mutations designed to protect crops from drought, flooding, pathogens and bioweapons. In essence, the visiting insects would modify the plant’s genetic makeup. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/16/frankenbees-genetically-modified-pollinators-danger-of-building-a-better-bee

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