2 disturbing reports involving genetically engineered crops

**G*@aol.com**

FYI
Bt and butterflies are back in the news. Also herbicide resistant weeds.
Sally

+ MONARCH BUTTERFLIES ON DECLINE IN MEXICO 
The population of Monarch butterflies has suffered a drastic decline. 
Mexico's Environment Department says that 75 percent fewer Monarch butterflies have 
appeared in 2004 compared to previous years. 
It blames cold weather and intensive farming - including GM crops - in areas 
of the US and Canada where the butterflies spend the summer and reproduce... 
Monarch butterfly larvae have been found to die after eating milkweed coated 
with GM corn pollen.
http://www.newsday.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-mexico-monarch-butterflies,0,2
034485.story?coll=sns-ap-science-headlines
See: Dively, G.P., R. Rose, M.K. Sears, R.L. Hellmich, D.E. Stanley-Horn, 
D.D. Calvin, J.M. Russo and P.L. Anderson. 2004. Effects on
monarch butterfly larvae (Lepidoptera: Danaidae) after continuous exposure to 
Cry1Ab expressing corn during anthesis.
Environmental Entomology 33: 1116-1125.
http://ninetta.esa.catchword.o
rg/vl=848430/cl=85/nw=1/rpsv/cw/esa/0046225x/v33n4/s42/p1116

+ US MAY LEAD WORLD IN HERBICIDE-RESISTANT WEEDS
While newly-arrived Asian soybean rust hogs the media spotlight, a home-grown 
monster patiently awaits its turn. If weed scientists are correct, the 
monster won't have long to wait. "Very shortly, I think, the impact of herbicide 
resistance is going to be huge," says Ford Baldwin, veteran Arkansas weed 
scientist. 

As the list of herbicide options shrinks, Stephen Powles, director of the 
Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (WAHRI), points to his native 
Australia as a lesson to US agriculture. Powles - "the international expert on 
herbicide resistance," says Baldwin - warns there's too little diversity in 
US fields, there's too much reliance on Roundup Ready crops and hence 
glyphosate and the pipeline for new herbicide chemistries is "nearly dry... My 
prediction is you [the US] will be crowned king of herbicide resistance within the 
next few years."
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4892

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