Corn boom causing fisheries doom

Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since World War II. And sea life in the Gulf of Mexico is paying the price. The nation’s corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt [...]

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Modified toxins to kill Bt-resistant insects

Figuring out how Bt toxins punch holes in the cells of an insect’s gut was the key to designing the new toxins, according to a Mexico-U.S. research team. Some insects have developed resistance to Bt toxins, naturally occurring insecticides used worldwide to combat pests of crops such as cotton and corn and also disease-carrying mosquitoes. [...]

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