Bt Crops - GMOs go mainstream

The NewLeaf potato was a failure, appearing and disappearing in under a decade. But it was the first of a new wave of GMO crops that have endured to the present day - Bt crops. 

 

Key references

Insect Resistance in Crops: A Case Study of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and its Transfer to Developing Countries. 1997.

 

The chronicle of the ups and downs that made Bacillus thuringiensis a natural insecticide by Ninfa Rosas-Garcia, 2023. 

 

https://dfg-vk-darmstadt.de/Lexikon_Auflage_2/BerlinerErnst.htm

Biographical details about Ernst Berliner. 

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/biotechnology

→ 2025 USDA data on Bt crops

 

https://farmingfirst.org/2025/12/how-africa-can-benefit-from-south-africa-success-with-gm-crops/

⇒ GMO crops in South Africa. 

 

https://farmingfirst.org/2025/12/how-africa-can-benefit-from-south-africa-success-with-gm-crops/

⇒ GMO crops in Kenya

Rise and fall of the New Leaf Potato - https://krautnah.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/15_7_2_Thornton.pdf. 

https://time.com/archive/6925559/why-mcdonalds-pulled-frankenfries-from-menu/TIME article about lack of commercial interest in NewLeaf potato. 

Resources on Bt and milkweed

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1999/04/toxic-pollen-bt-corn-can-kill-monarch-butterflies

https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/116/2/297/6968925

→ 2023 review paper on Bt crops and resistance

https://www.monarchscience.org/single-post/2020/09/02/a-look-back-at-the-time-when-the-entire-world-thought-bt-corn-was-killing-monarchs

→ Blog post summarizing the incident

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001415

→ Bt crops and bees

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.241503398

→ read this and see if its useful