The Nation - News from July 1, 1988

Scientists injected 2,200 corn stalks with a microbe effective against the destructive European corn borer in the first approved outdoor test of a genetically engineered “plant vaccine.” Environmental groups did not oppose the tests, which were approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture. The tests of Cxc-Bt, developed by Crop Genetics International, will be conducted at the federal experimental station in Beltsville, Md., and at another site on the state’s Eastern Shore. The corn borer, a moth larva introduced to the United States in 1908, is one of agriculture’s most destructive pests, attacking about 200 plant species, Crop Genetics said, and costing American farmers $400 million a year.