Genetic Modification and Pandora's Box*

May 2nd, 2007 7:53 AM

By Matt Hutaff, May 1, 2007

The disappearance of bee colonies around the world could ravage
agriculture -- and it's all our fault.

Rumor has it Albert Einstein once declared humanity could only outlive
the bee by about four years. His reasoning was simple: "no more bees, no
more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Nothing like entomological doomsday scenarios from a classical
physicist, right?

Nonetheless, it looks like we're poised to find out if the godfather of
relativity is right. Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate,
particularly in the United States and Germany. And while it's normal for
hive populations to fall during colder winter months, the recent exodus
is puzzling beekeepers and researchers around the world. Are we
witnessing the death throes of the human race firsthand? Will the bee go
the way of the dodo? Not likely, but I'll tell you one thing –
whatever's driving the collapse of the bee population, it's man-made.

"During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from
commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying
in the eastern United States," says Maryann Frazier, an apiarist with
Penn State University. "Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from
all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses,"
including one gentleman who's lost 800 of his 2,000 colonies in less
than four months.

Those losses are atypical. The usual causes of death, aside from
climate, are varroa mites, hive beetles, and wax moths, which infest
hives weakened by sickness and malnutrition. Annual casualties tend to
hover in the 20th percentile, and beekeepers work with entomologists to
protect their investments via antibiotics, miticides, and advanced pest
management.

Not so today. The current blight has spread across the country rapidly,
leaving abandoned hives full of uneaten food and unhatched larvae.
Natural predators brave enough to enter behave erratically, "acting in a
way you normally don’t expect them to act," says beekeeper Julianne
Wooten. And whereas naturally abandoned hives are infested by other
insects within a short period of time, hives affected by what is
tentatively labeled colony collapse disorder (CCD) are avoided.

California and Texas have been hit particularly hard by the sudden
disappearance of bees, but dozens of other states are reporting major
losses as well. And when you consider bees are big business as well as a
critical part of the food chain, that vanishing act is no laughing
matter. Consider:

* bees are essential for pollinating over 90 varieties of vegetables and
fruits, including apples, avocados, blueberries, and cherries;
* pollination increases the yield and quality of crops by approximately
$15 billion annually; and
* California's almond industry alone contributes $2 billion to the local
economy, and depends on 1.4 million bees, which are brought in from all
over the United States.

Bees stimulate the food supply as well as the economy. So what's the
cause of colony collapse? Suspicions are pointed in several different
directions, including cell phone transmissions and agricultural
pesticides, some of which are known to be poisonous to bees. But if
these two factors are responsible, why are the deaths not a global
phenomenon? The bee collapse began in isolated pockets before
progressing rapidly around the nation. If cell phones are to blame,
shouldn't the effect have been simultaneous, and witnessed years ago?
And if pesticides are strictly to blame, shouldn't beekeepers near major
farm systems be able to track those pollutants and narrow the field of
possible suspects?

Perhaps they have – and the culprit is bigger than we imagine.

Several scientists have come forward with the startling claim that
genetically modified food – you know, that blessing from above that
would solve famine and put food in the belly of every undernourished,
Third World child – is destroying bees. How could something so wondrous
as pest-resistant corn kill millions upon millions of bees? Simple – by
producing so much natural pesticide that bees are either driven mad or away.

Most genetically-modified seeds have a transplanted segment of DNA that
creates a well-known bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), in its
cells. Normally Bt is not a problem – it's a naturally-occurring
pesticide that's been used as a spray for years by farmers looking to
control crop damage from butterflies. And it's effective at helping
beekeepers keep bees alive, too – Bt is sprayed under hive lids to keep
those pesky wax moths from attacking.

But "instead of the bacterial solution being sprayed on the plant, where
it is eaten by the target insect, the genes that contain the
insecticidal traits are incorporated into the genome of the farm crop,"
writes biologist and beekeeper John McDonald. "As the transformed plant
grows, these Bt genes are replicated along with the plant genes so that
each cell contains its own poison pill that kills the target insect.

"Canadian beekeepers have detected the disappearance of the wax moth in
untreated hives, apparently a result of worker bees foraging in fields
of transgenic canola plants. [And] the planting of transgenic corn and
soybean has increased exponentially, according to statistics from farm
states. Tens of millions of acres of transgenic crops are allowing Bt
genes to move off crop fields."

McDonald's analysis stands up under scrutiny. A former agronomist has
commented that the one trial of GM crops in the Netherlands quickly led
to colony collapse within 100 kilometers of the fields, and it's
reasonable to hypothesize nature's pollinators would bear an averse
reaction to plants with poison coursing through every stem.

"The amount of Bt in these plants is enough to trigger allergies in some
people, and irritate the skin and eyes of farmers who handle the crops,"
writes Patrick Wiebe. "In India, when sheep were used to clear a field
of leftover Bt cotton, several sheep died after eating it." If it can
kill a sheep, it can certainly kill a bee.

What can be done? Precious little if gene-modified plants are the
genesis of colony collapse. "There is no way to keep genetically
modified genes from escaping into the wild," says Mike Rivero. "Wild
varieties of corn in Mexico have been found to contain artificial genes
carried by the wind and bees. Indeed it is probable that the gene that
makes the plant cells manufacture a pesticide has already escaped, which
means this problem will only spread.
"This is far more dangerous than a toxic spill, which confines itself to
the original spill and the downwind/downstream plumes. A mistake in a
gene, once allowed into the wild, can spread across the entire planet."

Genetically-modified food is produced by companies such as Monsanto (how
many of its scientists do you think drive a hybrid?). Despite a number
of tests, the food created by these gene-spliced crops are considered a
failure. It consistently makes animals ill, increases liver toxicity,
and damages kidneys. What's the incentive to grow this food? What's the
incentive to eat it?

In our dash to trademark the very building blocks of our food supply,
companies experimenting with "upgrading" crops may have irreparably
damaged one of nature's most important contributors. Instead of
approaching famine from a balanced perspective, corporations have
patented the right to subsist. If Einstein's lesser-known theory is
right, they have unwittingly become Shiva, the destroyer of worlds.

Wait – that was Oppenheimer. I need to stop quoting dead German physicists.

Give bees a chance. Roll back the Frankenfood and pray the bee colonies
return to pollinate our way to a full stomach.

Canon Fodder is a bi-weekly analysis of politics and society.

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