New US Patents Could Signal The End Of Pesticides & GMOs

This is certainly encouraging!

Have anybody else here researched this before?

http://www.collective-evolution.com...ents-could-signal-the-end-of-pesticides-gmos/

 

No but some plants need insects for pollination. Other than the need to reapply and it does not work when wet, food grade diatomaceous earth works also.

 

Well, according to the link, they can "code" the spores for particular insects. That would make it bee safe, while dangerous to the harmful insects.

 

Perhaps but I distrust your source's understanding of the issues. They make reference to this eliminating the need for round-up ready GMO's. It does not. round-up is an herbicide, not an insecticide. As for you wider issue, I have heard of similar research. I think there is a malaria (or one of those other jungle diseases) drugs that is synthesized from specific plants. Whatever the disease is, there was some researcher traveling looking for plants natives use for illness and stumbled upon it as people were often eating the leaves of whatever plant that hosted the fungus.

 

That stuff works great for the bugs around my house. And as long as we don't run out of diatoms, it'll be cheap.

 

Not my source, the OP's source.

That said, after reading the patent (which has already expired, BTW), I'm not too impressed. If it worked well and was affordable, we'd be using it.

 

Sorry for the confusion. There is always potential in this sort of stuff, but experience tells me this: The more selective something is, the less of it you will sell which means you will charge more for it which means nobody will buy it when they could go with something cheaper that is a one-size fits all solution. Things that are naturally derived are usually also more expensive and time consuming as opposed to just chemicals. Another aspect the article seemed to not understand is that things that are genetically modified are not just done that way for insect resistance. It could be done for deer resistance, drought/heat tolerance, to make bigger yields in shorter growing windows, or just because somebody wants a rose bush that color coordinates with their dog.

I try to be all eco friendly when I can, but sometimes you just have to carpet bomb with broad spectrum insecticides because you are battling too much stuff at once. "I want a low maintenance way to keep all the weeds out of my garden without using round up or chemicals" "Pave it with asphalt is about the only way that will happen" LOL

 

I doubt very much we will ever run out of diatoms. We may run out of diatomaceous earth (which is fossilized diatoms)

 

A few diatoms are probably fossilizing as we speak. But that stuff works great and is perfectly safe, although I haven't tried it in my hash pipe.

 

Not to discredit the guy but there is no such thing as "the world's leading mycologist." And Deckle is right, bioinsecticides are not going to eliminate the need for Round Up resistant GMO's

 

The author seems more intent on hyping the technology than reporting on it.

 

Pesticides not killin' just bugs...

U.N. report estimates pesticides kill 200,000 people per year
March 9, 2017 - Overwhelming majority of those killed are farmers in the developing world

 

The only real answer is grow your own or buy from small organic farms. Industrial strength farming will always need industrial strength pesticides

 

Roundup Ready GMO technology has nothing to do with insect pests. This one fact casts doubt on the writers credibility. I wish it were true, but I have my doubts.

 

I am skeptical when it comes to studies that link long-term exposure to deaths. People die of cancers and such who have little to no exposures. Passing correlations off as causation in bad science.

 

If you can code a gene to produce a toxin that kills a specific insect, and is safe for everything else, you can synthesize the same toxin and it will be safe too

 

You could very well be correct about this.....
and on the plus side.....
this fact could lead to a boom in real estate prices for land within a hundred miles of major USA cities.........

 

We grow lots of our own food but live in the mountains so what we can grow is somewhat limited. Fortunately small organic farms are popping up all over in the valley below us and we buy what we can't grow from them.

 

Excellent.....
I do believe that this is a trend that is going to become an important part of the
USA economic recovery and boom......


http://www.politicalforum.com/index...-fed-policy-pay-off-usa-national-debt.489825/

Could a real estate boom plus better Fed policy pay off USA national debt?

 

I bought some sweet corn seed as an experiment. It is roundup ready and produces a BT. toxin for insects. This includes control for the corn borer and the corn root borer. I am testing it against a very old sweet corn variety called hickory. So GMO can be roundup ready and insect resistant.

 

Yes, it can. But that is an insect-resistant GMO technology, which is different from the Roundup Ready GMO technology which I mentioned, and yet they can be combined in a dual-function GMO modification.

So what I said is valid, and what you said is also valid.

 

I would take anything Stamets comes up with seriously and really look into it. He has dedicated his whole life to mycology and is deep into its possibilities. He has his own farm and business and lots of interesting and useful products. I have been using a throat spray his company produces and have had no colds since I started using it. (I also use Zicam, but the spray has even stopped flulike things from developing).

 

Most farmers would never go fer it...I use the old fashioned methods of personally assassinating every bug on my plants in the garden..

 

It would be very expensive to use commercially

 

I find that kind of hard to believe. It seems like quite a task to code different spores to different insects. And the research and development very expensive. Some farmers seem to think that supplying a habitat for predator insects is the key. As for me...I really don't know. Even grasshoppers in pasture can eat precious biomass. I run chickens in mine. They eat insects and provide meat and eggs in return. Some farming solutions can be quite simple, like multi species grazing. But I would support any system that reduces the use of wholesale killing in order to farm. Cide does mean kill.