Is It Possible To Have The Cake and Eat It Too When It Comes To BT Cotton?
By: Razan Alhaj, Jaycee Nguyen, Sarah Ronquillo, and Sharissa Soriano
March 24, 2014
Worldwide – As many may know, BT Cotton is a cotton plant that has been genetically modified to produce a toxin known as BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), hence the name BT Cotton. Normally cotton is grown within the small green buds of the plant, known as the boll, and once ripe, the bud blossoms to reveal the cotton fibers, but many farmers struggle to protect their cotton from insect invasion like the bollworm. The bollworm is an insect the burrows into the boll of the cotton plant as a form of shelter and nutrients. This modification prevent insect invasion because the cotton plant can now produce the toxin within itself, so once the bollworm tries to burrow into the boll it will be exposed to the toxin, resulting in death.
The Good - Genetically modified cotton cultivation has become widely popular in places like, India, China, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Columbia, and even the United States. Many cultivators of BT Cotton can agree on the positive benefits such as more yield of cotton fibers during every harvest, due to the lack of pest infestation. A research done in China back in 2004 can also agree, because due to the increase in BT Cotton production there was an associated decrease in pesticide uses, which directly related to a major decrease in the number hospitalizations and deaths of cotton farmers due to pesticide poisoning. Another more recent research done in China in 2012, documented what they called a “halo effect”, or a positive side effect of BT Cotton to be the effect it had on the pink bollworms in non-genetically modified cotton. Stud...
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The three main brands of the company in India are Bt Cotton, Dekalb and Roundup. According to the Monsanto Webpages,“Dekalb is a high-yielding hybrid maize seeds, and Roundup is a glyphosate-based product that is a solution to weeds in the farms.” Bt Cotton is a Pest resistant and high yielding genetically modified cotton seeds which have been in use in India since 2002. This is the only GM crop allowed in India by the government because it is not a food crop and it accounts for 93% of the cotton grown in India. Also with the introduction of Bt Cotton in the last 12 years, India has recently become the largest exporter of cotton in the world. Bt Brinjal was allowed in India ,but had to be withdrawn due to the pressure from various social and political groups and since then no GM food has been allowed to be grown in India. Neighbouring country Bangladesh has allowed Bt Brinjal to be grown. To conclude, Monsanto is an active agricultural company doing research and producing high yielding and pest resistant seeds, also producing Roundup in order to help farmers improve production of farms.
The boll weevil’s primary food source are cotton plants, a crop that covered the southern plantations at the time. In the spring, when they emerge from hibernation, they puncture the cotton buds and lay their eggs inside ("What is a Boll Weevil?"). After about four days, the larvae are born. This is where most of the damage occurs. The larvae eat and destroy the cotton fibers("What is a Boll Weevil?"). The plant is plagued by these insects; they eat them until the cotton plant’s eventual death. The boll weevil season allows for man...
On the contrary, the tools of GE are created to snip nature’s crop by damaging the environment, increasing the number of herbicides and pesticides used and the risk of permanent genetic trash. Monsanto and other companies mention their seeds and food have been tested for safety. But no environment or food safety has been recorded on genetically engineered crops and foods before commercialization. The companies have done the whole enchilada within their level to steal the rights to safe and healthy foods from the societies and consumers. Vandana emphasizes that other organization have told that soybean covered with Roundup crops are additional estrogen and could claim as hormones. Dairy cows that eat Roundup Ready soybeans produce milk with increased fat levels that cows that eat consistent soybeans. Vandana complicates matters further when she writes. “Super weeds could lead to "bio invasions," displacing local diversity and taking over entire ecosystems.” Monsanto and a former life sciences organizations created a method of injecting the toxin producing gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) into corps. This specific BT gene harvest a toxin that restricts insects, and the genetically engineered BT plants and therefore, able to create their own
In the video, “Genetically Modified Crops: Hope vs. Hype”, reveals that a Cornell study followed-up by Iowa state researchers show that “pollen from GMO corn is killing the larvae of the Monarch butterflies, which is not at all what the corn 's designers intended” (“Genetically Modified Crops: Hope vs. Hype”). GMO seeds are contaminating our environment, which were presumed safe before. Genetically-modified organisms are the unorthodox procedure of moving genes from one species to a completely different and unrelated species. These unnatural transferring of genetics are causing death among insects. Undeniably, nature 's long-lived ways are safer compared to the bio-tech 's short-lived ways. They hold many uncertainties. Such as, Niagara
The King Cotton, phrase frequently used by Southerners and authors pre and post-Civil war era, indicating the economic and political importance of cotton production. “After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin was a machine that easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation”(Cotton in the South, Eichhorn). The cotton gin allowed cotton to surpass tobacco as the dominant cash crop in the agricultural economy of the South, soon comprising more than half the total U.S. exports. “At the time of the American Civil War Southern plantations generated 75% of the world 's cotton supply” (Cotton in the South). Throughout this essay I will examine the North Atlantic
...earch Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology sued Monsanto in the Supreme Court of India and Monsanto could not start the commercial sales of its Bt cotton seeds until 2002. And, after the damning report of India’s parliamentary committee on Bt crops in August 2012, the panel of technical experts appointed by the Supreme Court recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of all GM food and termination of all ongoing trials of transgenic crops. But it had changed Indian agriculture already. Monsanto’s seed, the destruction of alternatives, the collection of super profits in the form of royalties, and the increasing vulnerability of cultures has created a context for debt, suicides and distress which is driving the farmers’ suicide epidemic in India. This systemic control has been intensified with Bt cotton. That is why most suicides are in the cotton belt.
One of the most prominent crops in the GMO industry is Bt corn. The Bt pesticide stands for Bacillus Thuringiensis. Scientists transferred the Bt gene into the corn to create a crop that produces its own pesticides. As the corn matures, it grows stronger poi...
A debate is ragging over the advancements being made in genetic engineering. Scientist discovered that genes are the map of every aspect of a living organism, this has furthermore led to the prospect of altering this coding. By modifying one’s genes parents will one day be able to pick the color of their unborn child’s eyes and farmers will have the ability to develop plants that will produce bigger and healthier harvest. With the growing anticipation that some feel towards genetically modified crops others question it effects on the surrounding environments. Often pesticides are more heavily relied on for genetically modified crops and some cases have found pollination decreased in areas dominated by GM plants. Since there are so many aspects of genetic modification that have yet to be explored, much more research is required before distributing GM seeds internationally, but from the information already available the sides have begun to divide.
Young, C. (2013, December 3). 7 most common genetically modified foods. In Food for thought.
Garments and clothing can be very deceiving. They may look harmless and safe, but behind it all there is more to them than what meets the eye. Cotton consumes eleven percent of the world’s pesticides. Which can be h...
The term ‘genetic engineering’ covers several methods of manipulating genetic material, otherwise known as genetic manipulation; recombinant DNA technology and gene therapy in humans (Atkinson, 1998). This technique is not only used for genetic transfer between plants but, genes from non-plant organisms can be used as well. A known example of this is the transfer of the B.t gene found in corn and other crops. The B.t gene, or otherwise known as ‘Bacillus thurngiensis (Bt)’; is a naturally occurring bacterium that creates proteins with crystals that are fatal to insect larvae (Whitman, 2000). These B.t genes have been transferred into the corn, allowing the corn to effectively produce its own pesticides against insects.
Many, many things that we wear, sleep on, sleep under, walk on, or utilize in wound-care, etc., contain some percentage of cotton. It is a fiber that is used everyday, by everyone, in one way or another. It has qualities that have made it a choice crop for centuries around the world. Today though, cotton is being largely displaced by synthetic fibers that have qualities that exceed the natural crop plant. These fibers can also be mass-produced and sold at relatively lower costs.
What is genetic modification (GM)? (2011, October 14). Retrieved May 29, 2014, from CSIRO: http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Food-and-Agriculture/WhatIsGM.aspx
“Adoption of Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S.” ERS/USDA Data. Web. 12 May 2012. .
Biotechnology helps in protecting the environment,It provides crops with protection from viruses and insects by reducing the number of pesticid...