Can't Fool Mother Nature

Posted by: "Julia Graham" jlg7001@humboldt.edu

GM: BEES SHUN BIOTECH; COLDIRETTI, NATURE DEFENDS ITSELF
(AGI) Rome, Jan 3

The fact that bees are staying away from fields cultivated with genetically modified organisms and the consequent reduction in pollination is a scientific alarm for agriculture and the environment, which justifies the precaution and gives value to the zero tolerance decision made by Italian agriculture against biotech, said Coldiretti, commenting on the results of study by the Department of Biological Sciences of Simon Fraser University from British Columbia, Canada.

The study, which was published by the Ecological Society of America, showed that in fields cultivated with GM grapes, the number of bees fell sharply, with a serious deficit in pollination compared to traditionally grown fields.

Besides being useful for agriculture due to their pollination activities, which help crop-growing, bees have always been an important sensor to evaluate the quality of agricultural systems, Coldiretti said. Their diffidence of GM products is therefore a signal from nature that should not be underestimated.

Bees' ability to distinguish GM plants from normal plants also shows that the two crops are not equivalent.

Coldiretti said that this confirms the concern about the effects of co-existence between traditional crops and biotech crops and it shows that more research and testing is needed to verify the effects on the agricultural ecosystem.

This study justifies the growing opposition to GM products as food: three out of four Italians (74 percent) say they believe GM products are not healthy, an opinion which has grown by 4 percent, according to the 2006 Coldiretti-ISPO Investigation onItalians' opinions about nutrition.

It is a signal which is coherent with the path chosen by Italian agriculture which, also thanks to Coldiretti's work for food quality and security, is free from GM products and has garnered the European leadership in biological foods and traditional products.

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