Strange Breeds

Strange Breeds

• Currently, only a few genetically altered organisms are being grown:
  • Corn
  • Soybeans
  • Cotton
• These GMOs are government regulated.
• However, the processes used to grow these GMOs sometimes harm the environment.
• Bacillus Thuringienis (BT) is a bacterium that attacks the cells of caterpillars, causing death.
• In the past, BT was sprayed on vegetable plants as a biological control for the cabbage caterpillar and other organisms that attack vegetable crops.
• Because biological spraying is expensive, a new type of corn resistant to BT was developed.
• The corn crops grew well.
• Environmentalists observed dead monarch butterflies near the cornfields.
• Butterflies only eat when they are caterpillars; as butterflies, they eat nectar from flowers.
• Monarch caterpillars eat the Milkweed plant, not corn.
• Question: How did the BT corn kill monarch butterflies?
• Hypothesis: Pollen from the BT corn may have been blown by the wind onto surrounding wildflowers.
  • If the bacteria were in the pollen, it may have transferred to the flowers and infected the nectar.
• This hypothesis was never proven.