From: altamira (altamira@ecpi.com)
Date: Tue Aug 01 2000 - 22:14:43 MDT
If you were not aware, most of the
> native bees in North America died off a couple years ago due to the
> depradations of a *naturally* evolved fungal infection epidemic (showing
> that evolution itself still has far more impact upon our environment
> than we think we do in our hubris).
Actually, its the Varroa mite that's been killing off the honey bees, and
it's the Italian honey bee that's effected, not native bees. Here in Texas
we have populations of Africanized honey bees that are surviving well in the
wild, and there's research underway to identify resistant strains of Italian
honey bees.
I believe the grain crops you're referring to are the ones which contain
genes from the *Bacillus thuringiensis*, a bacterium which is lethal to the
larvae of moths and butterflies. Based on what I know about the way plants
and other organisms interact, I think the insertion of the Bt gene into
grain crops is a bad idea.
Bonnie
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