Articles by Tom Laskawy

We found 3 results.

The Bugs That Ate Monsanto
Tom Laskawy, Grist – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Dec 2011

Now that 94 percent of the soy and 70 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. are genetically modified, Monsanto might look to some like it’s winning. But if we look a little closer, I’d say they’re holding on by a thread. Over the last several years, so-called “superweeds” have grown resistant to the herbicide RoundUp, the companion product that’s made Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant (aka RoundUp-Ready) corn, soy, and alfalfa so popular. Those crops were supposed to be the only plants that could withstand being sprayed by the chemical. Oops.

→ read full article

Have We Really Solved the Mystery Behind the Shocking Die-off of Bees?
Tom Laskawy – Grist, 20 Dec 2010

These devices throw up a toxic cloud of pesticide as they work: bees fly through the cloud and either die or take the pesticide back to the hive. Once inside, even at low doses, it can cause disorientation or, as Girolami calls it, “intoxication” of whole hives. The maker of this pesticide is Bayer CropScience. What does a corporation do when it discovers it may have developed and marketed a dangerous and potentially devastating product? Here in America, you confuse, you obfuscate, and you buy off scientists. And as Eban skillfully details, that’s exactly what Bayer has been doing for the last decade or so.

→ read full article

Sorry, New York Times: The bee die-off case is not closed
Tom Laskawy – Grist, 25 Oct 2010

Let’s be clear: The study itself makes no conclusive claims about the causes of colony collapse disorder. Eban quotes from the paper that the research does not “clearly define” that the virus/fungus combination is “a marker, a cause, or a consequence of CCD.” A scientist interviewed by Eban very helpfully offers the metaphor of HIV to describe what’s going on with bees. HIV doesn’t kill you — it’s the opportunistic infections and diseases that follow HIV’s dismantling of a sufferer’s immune system that do. In the case of bees, the virus/fungus combo are most likely the follow-on infections that kill off an already weakened hive.

→ read full article