Bt crops, the sibling to the herbicide resistant crops often maligned by anti-GMO activists, have not onlyreduced insecticide use in the U.S. but also have a food safety benefit: Reduction of mycotoxin contamination of crops, which can harm both humans and animals.
Bt seeds are engineered to express the cry genes from bacillus thuringiensis, which produces insecticidal toxins so crops are resistant to certain pests. Farmers, most especially organic farmers, have been spraying the natural form of the bacterium for almost a century to great effect and with no measurable environmental hazards, as the toxin only interacts with targeted insects but not humans.
"The benefit of Bt corn's reduction of mycotoxin damage has been virtually ignored in policy debates anywhere in the world," Felicia Wu, a Michigan State University food and nutrition professor, has noted.
There are over 300 known mycotoxins that have different effects on health.
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