# Bumble bees



## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

Maybe this is another warning sign, who knows?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/bumblebees-endangered-extinction-united-states/



> It’s official: For the first time in the United States, a bumblebee species has been declared endangered.
> 
> The rusty patched bumblebee (_Bombus affinis_), once a common sight, is “now balancing precariously on the brink of extinction,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Once thriving in 28 states and the District of Columbia, but over the past two decades, the bee’s population has plummeted nearly 90 percent. There are more than 3,000 bee species in the United States, and about 40 belong to the genus _Bombus_—the bumblebees.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Well your not going to get those swell heads in Washington or any state capital to ban GMO crops and the way farmers spray every thing in sight.
they would loose to much money.

 Al


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## Lady89 (Feb 22, 2014)

GMO crops dont have a *$&@ thing to do with it, and it drives my crazy when people spew that off with no idea what they are talking about. The problem is pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and all the other stuff we spray GMOs that are disease and insect resistant are the best bet to fixing the problem


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yet uneducated people think GMO crops are safe for insects when they have a systemic engineered right in them, bees gather the pollen from them.

Why do you think GMO seed is banded in some other advanced country's?

 Al


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## Lady89 (Feb 22, 2014)

GMOs are engineered to deter leaf eating insects the pollen is rarely if ever altered in any way the worst thing done to pollen is it simply gotten rid it entirely in the plants that have been fixed to be sterile. The reason advanced countries are killing GMOs is to the sheeple buying into fear mongering by "educated" people who don't take the time to learn that genetic engineering is just selective breeding done on a larger and faster scale


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Ya ok believe what you will the rest know what is really going on.

 Al


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## CircleC (Feb 22, 2017)

Lady89 said:


> GMOs are engineered to deter leaf eating insects the pollen is rarely if ever altered in any way the worst thing done to pollen is it simply gotten rid it entirely in the plants that have been fixed to be sterile. The reason advanced countries are killing GMOs is to the sheeple buying into fear mongering by "educated" people who don't take the time to learn that genetic engineering is just selective breeding done on a larger and faster scale


Im pretty sure genetic engineering, creation of what most people call 'GMOs' is nothing at all like selective breeding.


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## bobp (Mar 4, 2014)

Not to hijack the thread but, in my opinion there is very little difference between GMOs and naturally selected resistance. 
Case in point. 
Soybeans, you Take several generations and give tiny metered doses of glyphosphate or 24D in a petri dish, to develop an immunity. ( Kinda like we do with our kids and say... Polio, Chicken Pox, measles ect)
But take pig weed. You use glyphosphate to kill it, and kill it and kill it and kill it for many generations and presto flash bang boom you get a modified GMO, accidentally of course. That can almost drink the stuff. 

The facts are we can't feed the seven billion folks we have much less the next billion that'll be here shortly, without GMOs. You cannot cost effectively, safely, efficiently, raise wheat, soybeans, corn, potatoes, etc with heavy direct competition from pigweed and Johnson grass or most other heavy weeds. 
I'd rather have a Irish potato that is resistant to mildew than one that isn't.

The corn, potatoes, wheat that we as humans started with in our domestication program (survival) were always genetically modified. Period. The potato plants in South America that suffered too greatly from disease pressure faded away. The ones that developed an immunity reproduced them self. 
Taking a seed potato and exposing it to mildew, or any number of substances to build a resistance, is not much different than what God had Ole' Mother Nature doing I'm the first place. Time is the big difference. Mother nature does it over eons, we do it in years. Same result. A plant that can survive a given set of circumstances and environmental pressures. 
Just my 2¢


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## dyrne (Feb 22, 2015)

Unless something has changed, GMO crops are used most often to allow use of more powerful herbicides and pesticides. It isn't that I'm directly concerned with the crop itself, it is the practices surrounding the crop that are of concern. I think something like 93% of soy planted in the US is of herbicide tolerant variety for example.


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## CircleC (Feb 22, 2017)

bobp said:


> Not to hijack the thread but, in my opinion there is very little difference between GMOs and naturally selected resistance.
> Case in point.
> Soybeans, you Take several generations and give tiny metered doses of glyphosphate or 24D in a petri dish, to develop an immunity. ( Kinda like we do with our kids and say... Polio, Chicken Pox, measles ect)
> But take pig weed. You use glyphosphate to kill it, and kill it and kill it and kill it for many generations and presto flash bang boom you get a modified GMO, accidentally of course. That can almost drink the stuff.
> ...


Im not sure where this idea is coming from, is it Wikipedia or something?

Genetic modification is when the take the actual dna of a plant, clip a piece of the "strand" out and attach the a piece of the dna from a bacteria or virus or monkey or whatever to the plant dna. 

It has nothing to do with selective breeding. Your GMO corn or soy has dna from a bacteria of an animal in it. That is what people are uncomfortable about.


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## bobp (Mar 4, 2014)

GMO soybeans, corn ECT , are called such because they're modified to be
" round up ready " or "24D ready," or othsrwise resistant, not because they have monkey DNA? Really? That's insane. 

Have they done research like that ?posiibly but it hasn't come out of the FDA as approved yet. 

The DNA was subjected to small doses of the chemical repeatedly and when genes were seen that didn't show adverse reactions they were isolated and used to improve the resistance of the plant to the chemical. 

The glyphosphate studies are available if you'll do your homework.

When I was a young man in the mid eighties I worked for farmers in my area, who were raising corn and soy for on farm pork production. I'll never forget having to walk around with a back pack sprayer on and spray Johnson grass patches and other weeds. The glyphosphate killed everything, but you were keeping the seeds from going to seed or worse harvesting the seed and moving it around. 

I'll be there first to admit that I don't agree with all that science has done, BUT
Without this type of science moving us forward we will never feed the world.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

Lady89 said:


> GMOs are engineered to deter leaf eating insects the pollen is rarely if ever altered in any way the worst thing done to pollen is it simply gotten rid it entirely in the plants that have been fixed to be sterile. The reason advanced countries are killing GMOs is to the sheeple buying into fear mongering by "educated" people who don't take the time to learn that genetic engineering is just selective breeding done on a larger and faster scale[/QUOTE


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

Just remember that if it is put on the seeds and kills insect that eat the plant after it is growing it is in all of the plant including the part YOU EAT so plant those seeds with insect KILLER on them so the insect that bites you will die


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