Word: corns
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...Goodyear's new tire, made with corn...
...Utah. It drew 18,000 people in its first three weeks. Now he designs mazes around the country for about $30,000 apiece. "I've got orders for 100 this year alone," he says. He devises the pattern for a five- or six-acre maze on a computer, plants corn that grows more than 6 ft. tall, then uses a herbicide to form the twists and turns of the design. Weather permitting, of course. A bad season can thwart plans and turn the maze into a bust. "But every year a new design can be put in the same field...
...first, only bar girls like Jacky smoked the stuff. Then some of the younger guys who hung out with the girls tried it. And then a few of the housewives began smoking, and finally some of the dads would take a hit or two when they were out of corn whiskey. Now it has reached the point that on weekend nights, it's hard to find anyone in the slum who isn't smoking the mad medicine...
...potential sources of allergens. That's because the transferred genes contain instructions for making proteins and some proteins?those in peanuts, for example?cause allergic reactions. Then there is the problem of "genetic pollution," as opponents of biotechnology term it. Pollen grains from such wind-pollinated plants as corn, for instance, are carried far and wide. The continuing flap over Bt corn and cotton?the gene of a common soil bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis), a natural insecticide, is transferred to the plants?has provided more fodder for the debate. Ecologists are concerned that widespread planting of these crops will spur...
...Even more worrisome are ecological concerns. In 1999 Cornell University entomologist John Losey performed a provocative, "seat-of-the-pants" laboratory experiment. He dusted Bt corn pollen on plants populated by monarch-butterfly caterpillars. Many of the caterpillars died. Losey himself is not yet convinced that Bt corn poses a grave danger to North America's monarch-butterfly population, but he does think the issue deserves attention. Others agree. "The problem with transgenics is the risks and hazards involved," says Ashish Kothari of Kalpavriskh, an Indian environmental group working to preserve the country's biodiversity. "We still don't know...