One reason many farmers love GMO crops is that these genetically modified plants are designed to survive the herbicides that are doused on farm fields. Unfortunately, other living things, like birds, bees and butterflies, aren’t so fortunate. And when their health is threatened, researchers say, human health (and the food supply) is also in danger.According to scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in England, the plants farmers destroy with herbicides, including thistles, buttercups and clover, could be critical for safeguarding fragile food webs on farms. The researchers at the University of Bristol found that pollinating insects, like bees and butterflies, are vulnerable to the loss of plant diversity in farm fields. If those pollinators become extinct, the entire food chain may be undermined.
Researcher Jane Memmott warns: “If ecologists, land managers and policy makers want to manage farmland diversity, they need to understand the way species are linked to each other, since these links can have a huge impact on a community’s response to species loss, species restoration and the provision of ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control.”
“We already know that some wildlife groups are declining on our farms such as pollinators and birds,” adds researcher Michael Pocock. “Our research suggests that focusing on the sustainability of one group of animals may not bring benefits to others, however, we did find that restoring particular plants such as buttercups, thistles and clover could, theoretically at least, rapidly increase biodiversity across the farm.”
http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/the-gmo-threat-to-bees-and-your-health/
