Good Old Monsanto

No one will be shocked to learn that the new type of genetic manipulation [RNA interference], generally described as “gene silencing,” is being advanced on several fronts by Monsanto. One of the targets of the technology is the varroa mite a pest which attacks bees. The mite is being implicated by some chemical companies, wishing to protect the pesticides they market, as the cause of colony collapse among bees. Monsanto’s push to use gene silencing to control the mites seems calculated to play into this thinking.

The National Honey Bee Advisory Board, in comments submitted to the EPA ahaead of the meeting, wrote, “To attempt to use this technology at this current stage of understanding would be more naïve than our use of DDT in the 1950s.” DDT wiped out untold numbers of hives when it was first used in the U.S. before the connection between the pesticides and the harm it was doing to hives (and later, to birds) was recognized.

Monsanto is also seeking regulatory approval for RNAi technology to combat the corn borer worm.

[...]

Why is this new genetic modification of corn necessary? Because the root worm has developed a tolerance to genetically modified, Bt corn.

[...]

A similar modification was done with wheat in the hopes of making low-carbohydrate, low sugar producing products from wheat flour that was originally genetically modified. Once the wheat has been consumed, the RNA modification is adopted into the human body and “silences” the body’s glycogen pathway. This can lead to glycogen storage disease IV, a liver disease that causing slow wasting away in adults, and death to children born with the disease often by the age of five. [...] You can read more about the genetically modified wheat and RN1 technology here.

  Planet Natural

Another reason Monsanto needs to come up with something to replace Bt corn is the latest reporting on its damaging effects to humans.

And Who Is Surprised By This?

Last fall, the Environmental Protection Agency warned that Monsanto’s Bt corn, which was genetically engineered a decade ago to ward off rootworms, is now falling prey to worms that have developed resistance to the plants’ built-in insecticide. The EPA also expressed concern that Monsanto’s monitoring was “inadequate and likely to miss early resistance events.”

At the time, a company spokesperson denied there was a problem, telling Bloomberg News, “Monsanto continues to believe there’s no scientific confirmation of resistance to its Bt corn.”

However, this year’s corn-growing season is now well under way in the United States, and in some places the crops are suffering severe damage. Scientists have identitied the culprit as Bt-resistant rootworms.
  Raw Story

Any self-respecting scientist or student of biology could have predicted this (and did). The only reason Monsanto was able to push this technology on the world is the big money they spend on lobbying Congress members who not only have no self-respect, they have no shame, and no conscience.

The resistant rootworms have also appeared in South Africa, India, and China, but they may have the greatest impact in the United States, where more than half the corn grown is Bt.

In addition, American taxpayers could find themselves picking up the tab for any crop failures, thanks to government subsidies.

There's no “could” to that. It's guaranteed. And the price you pay for corn products will go up as you pay a premium to the growers who have been storing corn, waiting for the right time – like now, pull it out of their grain bins and put it on the market.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.