Genetically Modified Maggots may Appear in Fruit Due to GMO Fruit Fly Experiment in Brazil
Wait – wasn’t the point of making genetically modified crops to make them pest resistant? At least that is what biotech companies tell us. Monsanto’s own website says, for example, that “Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, is a modern solution to insect control.” So why on earth would Brazil allow for GMO Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata), which have been planned to be unleashed on millions of acres of fruit trees?
While the experiment has yet to be given a release date in Brazil, the GM fruit flies are likely going to lead to GM maggots in fruit that will then be illegally exported to Europe and other countries. What could cause this?
Once released, the genetically altered fruit flies will mate with flies to produce female offspring which will fail to reach full maturity, thereby leaving GM maggots inside fruit. This hair-brained scheme is another wacky brainchild of the biotech industry as a means to reduce wild populations of Mediterranean fruit flies, but there is obviously no precedence, no field testing which proves this would be safe, and will likely lead to other imbalances in the ecosystem which can create further super bugs that will make a mere fruit fly seem like a welcome friend.
Furthermore, to reduce the wild fruit fly population, it must be outnumbered by a 10 to 1 ratio, meaning that a whole lot of GM maggots may infiltrate fruit from Brazil. This will include its exports of melons, grapes, mango, apples, papayas, and plums. Europe is Brazil’s primary export market. The British and Dutch made almost two thirds of their fruit purchases from Brazil in 2013, and Spain, Germany, Portugal, Canada, the UAE, Uruguay, Italy, and Argentina were close behind.
This is comparable to the creation of genetically modified mosquitoes to wipe out Dengue Fever. Oxitec, a UK-based company responsible for the creation of genetically modified insects, is currently involved with pilot programs concerning the release of GMO mosquitoes. This has already raised some questions which can also be asked for the GMO fruit flies:
- What could happen to the ecosystem and local food chain after it has been infiltrated with genetically modified bugs?
- Who will regulate the release, and who will be responsible in the event of complications – to any degree?
Even though food containing genetically modified organisms is supposed to be tested, and labeled, there are currently no laws to protect consumers from GM maggots. These are creepy times indeed. I think I’ll grow my own heirloom fruit. Here are 5 foods you can grow from store-bought produce.
This is all because the entire point of GMO is as an assault against humanity. We need to fight is though it were and enemy that is needed to be destroyed. Not just have picket signs waved against it.
I would say that GMO is mostly a matter of control over one system. There will be solutions from other tech fields that will allow us to be toxified and yet still survive – that is also a mechanism of control since we will need the solution or suffer/perish. Humans have been trying to control every aspect of nature and the assault will remain as long as the soulless psychopaths keep retaining power. Sad world we live in since most people care more about the soccer game than humanity, liberty, and the health of the earth.
How about you focus your energy on finding a wholesome solution to the fly problem instead?
I have a great natural solution. Find out what the natural predator of the fly is and breed them without using genetic modifications then release them. Similar to farmers keeping cats so the mice population don’t explode and invade his storehouses. And when I say breed the predator without GM modification I do indeed mean that if you need to pay scientists to set up controlled environments in which to breed the natural predator in a natural yet controlled environment then that’s what you need to do. We dump so much money into scientific research for things like studying the mating habits of animals for no reason it would be great to fund meaningful research.
The fruit fly, much like mosquitos, don’t have exclusive predators. There’s plenty of species that will eat a fruit fly or mosquito if it happens to be easy prey, but generally, they’re not nutritious enough to be a primary food source for any predatory insect.
To have an effect, you’d have to breed and release huge quantities of predatory insects, and I’m afraid that their choice of menu would be quite indiscriminate, including pollinators and other fruit fly predators as well.
Programs like this have been tried – like introducing large populations of mosquito fish to eat larvae – and they did reduce the populations, but mosquitoes can lay their larvae in sitting water inside of tires, ditches… any kind of water-filled depression that’s too small for a fish will suit them fine.
What is the scientific name of mosquito eaters? I know mosquitoes have predators, they look very much the same but larger, they overpower and carry them off. Not sure of their names as I’ve been raised to call them simply mosquito-eaters. Everything has predators, perhaps we just don’t know it yet since we spend so much taxpayer dollars on other studies.
The ‘soulless psychopaths’ have found each other, colluded and organized. With the help of the internet, which we so value for finding that out! Too late. Brace yourselves for what’s next but don’t let vigilance turn to paranoia, and take care of children next. Close to good-to-go already: GM bananas and Monsanto developing GM cannabis in Uruguay. Also, GM plant-grown Rx drugs, cloned creatures, syn-bio, nano-bio.