Damn....crop doom....kudzu bugs wreaking havoc on soybeans

Snippet from the article:

Kudzu — the "plant that ate the South" — has finally met a pest that's just as voracious. Trouble is, the so-called "kudzu bug" is also fond of another East Asian transplant that we happen to like, and that is big money for American farmers.

Soybeans.

"When this insect is feeding on kudzu, it's beneficial," Clemson University entomologist Jeremy Greene says as he stands in a field swarming with the brown, pea-sized critters. "When it's feeding on soybeans, it's a pest."

Like kudzu, which was introduced to the South from Japan in the late 19th century as a fodder and a way to stem erosion on the region's worn-out farmlands, this insect is native to the Far East. And like the invasive vine, which "Deliverance" author James Dickey famously deemed "a vegetable form of cancer," the kudzu bug is running rampant.

[link to news.yahoo.com]

I am no fan of GMO's. But if this is hitting at our nation's farmers....I dunno what to say other than....



Last Edited by The Voice In Your Head on 10/19/2011 12:10 AM