Posted on 10/06/2018 2:02:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Pentagon research project called "Insect Allies." Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project involves using gene-editing techniques like CRISPR to infect insects with modified viruses that could help make America's crops more resilient. If a cornfield were hit by an unexpected drought or suddenly exposed to a pathogen, for example, Insect Allies might deploy an army of aphids carrying a genetically modified virus to slow the corn plant's growth rate.
According to the DARPA website, these "targeted therapies" could take effect in a single growing season, potentially protecting the American crop system from food security threats like disease, flooding, frost and even "threats introduced by state or non-state actors.
… Insect Allies, is less concerned. "Anytime you're developing a new and revolutionary technology, there is that potential for [both offensive and defensive] capability," Bextine told The Washington Post. "But that is not what we are doing. We are delivering positive traits to plants… We want to make sure we ensure food security, because food security is national security in our eyes."
Insect Allies is still in the early stages of development, and at least four U.S. colleges (Boyce Thompson Institute, Penn State University, The Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin)have received funding to carry out research. Bextine told The Washington Post that the project recently achieved its first milestone — testing whether an aphid could infect a stalk of corn with a designer virus that caused fluorescence. According to the Washington Post, "the corn glowed."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Not the first time the Then War Dept came up with something REALLY STUPID!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
Yes...It’s time for a move. Again. I vote for this...
Why do they worry about virus spreading insects when we can just drop the virus off from aircraft over their heads? And we are getting slowly saturated with illnesses from illegal aliens as it is now. Whooping cough, tuberculosis, leprosy, the pork tapeworm which causes cysticercosis, typhoid. River blindness, malaria, and guinea worm, have all been brought to Northern Virginia by immigration. And as these people go to work in services like food processing, construction, and hospitality services, all these and more will appear and we are not prepared for them. The different flues are only a small piece of the problem. And they’re worried about virus carrying insects? The priorities are out of place.
rwood
I liked the Israeli crocodiles, but military virus-spreading insects? That’s a three-fer.
OK, you have to stop making sense and go put on a tinfoil hat like the rest.
Great. A few hundred thousand Ebola bearing mosquitoes at $10 million apiece in the hands of the same people who loaded up on Chinese made computer motherboards with a backdoor built into them.
The longer i live, the more obvious it becomes that humankind is utterly foolish.
Seems to me that drought or pathogens would have already slowed the corn's growth rate. So what would be the point of slowing it even more? If the corn doesn't mature before the frost comes it's a loss no matter what slowed it down. Duh!
Test it on Democrats...
Yes ma’am. I heartily agree! We need something we can actually be proud of, as military moms... And stuff..
Insects. We’re fond of insects as long as they’re not in our homes.
Me. Especially. And now, I’m going to take my silly self to bed because if I stay up any longer, I’ll be accused of playing favorites.
See you in the morning, wherever we are! ;o]
I hope you have a good night. And I hope I have a good night. I can’t think of anything to panic over right now, so that’s a plus.
Sounds like a job for the Undead Thread.
They were beaten to the punch, someone released West Nile Virus infested mosquitoes years ago.
.
Mat 24:22
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
.
.
Yep!
This crap hasbeen going on for decades.
They don’t need the insects, that is what vaccines do: spread disease rapidly.
.
Imagine if Obama science czar Holdren had his demented ideas implemented.
Vaccines that purposely killed you would be one way to “liquidate” a large portion of the population rapidly in order to -in their minds- “save the earth.”
He advocated liquidating several million people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.