Did you know that in 2009, more than 85 percent of American corn crops were genetically modified to either repel pests or to be tolerant to herbicides used to kill weeds in a cultivated field?  This is the corn your buying and ingesting every time you purchase regular catchup, cookies, snacks, yogurt, and many other foods.

Why, well because High Fructose Corn Syrup is made using the Genetically Modified Corn that is very cheap to produce.  It is so cheap that now that is all we (US) feed farm animals.  For more on this and the detriments of GM crops for your health check out a post I did about the Food Inc documentary. It will revolutionize the way you eat and shop.

Not only are GMO crops a detriment to our health but now they are polluting rivers and streams across the US as mentioned in the article below.

GM maize ‘has polluted rivers across the United States’

An insecticide used in genetically modified (GM) crops grown extensively in the United States and other parts of the world has leached into the water of the surrounding environment.

The insecticide is the product of a bacterial gene inserted into GM maize and other cereal crops to protect them against insects such as the European corn borer beetle. Scientists have detected the insecticide in a significant number of streams draining the great corn belt of the American mid-West.

The researchers detected the bacterial protein in the plant detritus that was washed off the corn fields into streams up to 500 meters away. They are not yet able to determine how significant this is in terms of the risk to either human health or the wider environment.

“Our research adds to the growing body of evidence that corn crop byproducts can be dispersed throughout a stream network and that the compounds associated with genetically modified crops, such as insecticidal proteins, can enter nearby water bodies,” said Emma Rosi-Marshall of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York.

GM crops are widely cultivated except in Britain and other parts of Europe. In 2009, more than 85 percent of American corn crops were genetically modified to either repel pests or to be tolerant to herbicides used to kill weeds in a cultivated field.

The GM maize, or corn as it is called in the US, has a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuriengensis (Bt) inserted into it to repel the corn borer beetle. The Bt gene produces a protein called Cry1Ab which has insecticidal properties.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, analyzed 217 streams in Indiana. The scientists found 86 percent of the sites contained corn leaves, husks, stalks or cereal cobs in their channels and 13 percent contained detectable levels of the insecticidal Cry1Ab proteins.

“The tight linkage between corn fields and streams warrants further research into how corn byproducts, including Cry1Ab insecticidal proteins, potentially impact non-target ecosystems, such as streams and wetlands,” Dr. Rosi-Marshall said.

All of the stream sites with detectable insecticidal proteins were located within 500 meters of a corn field. The ramifications are vast just in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, where about 90 percent of the streams and rivers – some 159,000 miles of waterways – are also located within 500 meters of corn fields.

After corn crops are harvested, a common agricultural practice is to leave discarded plant material on the fields. This “no-till” form of agriculture minimizes soil erosion, but it then also sets the stage for corn byproducts to enter nearby stream channels.