Herbal_Remedies : Message: Bt and Organic
Dear Friends,
Bt (Bacillicus Thuringus) is a bacterium that contains a substance that is toxic to many insect pests. Their larva ingest it and die, instead of growing by eating the plant and then turning into flying critters. One of the examples of this is corn and corn earworms.
Bt powder is used by organic gardeners and farmers as a topical (on the surface) handling for these pests. The powder decays, producing no toxic residue on the land, and the Bt powder is washed off in food preparation. For corn, it is on the husks, which are usually stripped off.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have been bio-engineered to contain the GENE that Bt uses to create this toxin in itself. So, instead of an on-the-surface powder that the pest would eat, every single cell of the plant contains the gene that produces this toxin, and actually has the toxin inside every cell.
When you eat GMO corn, you are eating the Bt toxin directly. In fact, in a recent study of the blood of pregnant women, about 90% of them had the Bt toxin in their blood, and over 70% of their fetuses did, also.
At this point, the two major uses for GMO plants have been 1) to produce their own pesticide internally (as described above) and 2) to resist toxic chemical herbicides such as RoundUp and now the active chemicals that were used in Agent Orange so that fields can be mass-sprayed (often from the air) and the commercial crop will remain standing, while the weeds die.
Hope this clarifies the issue for you.
Best,
Cassandra
http://www.labelgmos.org
