"One of the pests, the cotton bollworm, is widespread in Africa, Asia and Europe and causes damage to over 100 crops, including corn, cotton, tomato and soybean. The damage and controlling the pest costs billions of dollars a year. It is extremely mobile and has developed resistance to all pesticides used against it. The other pest, the corn earworm, is a native of the Americas and has comparatively limited resistance and host range. However, the combination of the two, in a novel hybrid with unlimited geographical boundaries is cause for major concern. The CSIRO researchers in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA provides clear evidence of the hybridisation of the two moths in Brazil. “A hybrid such as this could go completely undetected should it invade another country. It is critical that we look beyond our own backyard to help fortify Australia’s defense and response to biosecurity threats,” Research Director leading CSIRO’s Biosecurity Risk Evaluation and Preparedness Program Dr Paul De Barro said. “As Australia’s national science agency, we are constantly looking for new ways to protect the nation and technology like genome sequencing, is helping to tip the scales in our favour.” While a combination of insecticides currently controls these pests well in Australia, it is important to study the pests themselves for sustainable long-term management world-wide. The scientists confirmed that among the group of caterpillars studied, every individual was a hybrid. “No two hybrids were the same suggesting a ‘hybrid swarm’ where multiple versions of different hybrids can be present within one population,” fellow CSIRO Scientist Dr Tom Walsh said. The bollworm, commonly found in Australia, attacks more crops and develops much more resistance to pesticides than the earworm. A concerning finding among the Brazilian hybrids was that one was 51 per cent earworm but included a known resistance gene from the bollworm. Lead author of the paper Dr Craig Anderson, a former CSIRO scientist now based at The University of Edinburgh, believes the hybrid study has wide-ranging implications for the agricultural community across the Americas. “On top of the impact already felt in South America, recent estimates that 65 per cent of the USA’s agricultural output is at risk of being affected by the bollworm demonstrates that this work has the potential to instigate changes to research priorities that will have direct ramifications for the people of America, through the food on their tables and the clothes on their backs,” Dr Anderson said." This is a frightening development.
The more we spray, the more these creatures become immune. Hence we need another pesticide. Keeps those big companies happy, doesn't it? Now I won't be starting another pro/con gm food discussion, but I have to ask whether we are really better off with the results you describe? Wouldn't it be best to let mother nature run its course? Its appears we are having far more plagues with the modernization of our farms and fields..... Just a thought..... http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32901834 https://www.abccommercial.com/librarysales/program/australian-story-back-earth-dr-martin-stapper Reg.
Really interesting, especially the existence of a hybrid swarm, containing multiple different hybrids. Also the last sentence, clearly they are mutating to include the strongest characteristics of the other, the earworm that included a resistance gene from the bollworm. Problem is how long will it take to even catalog all the different hybrids, and will they continue to change making it impossible to stop them. Yes very concerning.
One way to effectively provide resistance against this (but of course something they'll never do) is to end monoculture field practices. That means don't plant a large field with all exactly the same species and, worse, exactly the same cultivar. Doing that is practically like creating a petri dish for disease and pests to take hold. There have been some interesting field studies involving planting crops interspersed with companion plants. These companion plants don't have any economic value but help attract and sustain beneficial predators (like certain bird species) that inexpensively keep the pest insects in check.
I am of the belief that GMO crops are are terrible idea....... It is as if we have been asking for a worldwide famine as pests evolve that can chow down on these rather weak plants. I know that this is an unusual source for information on agriculture for the future...... but this is one form of evidence that small may be better for the long term. This supposedly takes place in the year 2185: https://www.near-death.com/experiences/notable/howard-storm.html#a04 Howard Storm Ph. D.
One method used now includes Genetic splicing, they find another plant or creature with a feature, "creature feature" lol, that us naturally inhospitable to the blight, and when spliced in makes the plant inhospitable and no longer a host. Reference, genetically modified Tobacco plants that glow in the dark. Cotton is not a food stuff and as such not much a hazard to modify genetically.
Here is one for you to consider, In 2052 a concern called A.D.M. in an effort to solve World Hunger, creates a mistake in a laboratory, that mutates and escapes the lab environment through a series of safety seals ala "Andromeda Strain" and wiping out a bit over 2/3 of the Worlds population in a few months before a means to stop it is eventually found. I had this conversation with a freind in F.E.M.A. over dinner in D.C. and asked him how we would deal with the Andromeda scenario, he laughed almost snorting Mega expensive Brandy out of his nose, he asked, are you kidding ? You read the book, I had a copy with Me at the time, the solution is there too. Only two survivors, a baby that would not stop crying, and an Elderly alcoholic both with abnormal blood gasses and high P.H. Levels....
