Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Radioactive Blueberries

The fall out from the Russian Chernobyl explosion happened
25 years ago....But is still causing food and sheep grazing problems today.
More than half a tonne of radioactive blueberries have been withdrawn from shops in Moscow, since the berries
contain dangerous levels of Caesium-137.
Many other shops in the Soviet Union have also had their fresh Blueberries siezed.
This of course would not include Blueberry jam's from in other European countries . e.g. Poland etc.(Just a thought. Hehehe)

http://www.rt.com/news/prime-time/radioactive-blueberries-russia-caesium/

Hopefully you are aware, and I have mentioned this before in SAGG. A few plants actually absorb radioactivity while they grow.
The Brazil Nut is one such plant
Brazil nuts (they are seeds) contain small amounts of radium. Although the amount of radium, a radioactive element, is very small, about 1–7 pCi/g (40–260 Bq/kg), and most of it is not retained by the body But this is still 1,000 times higher than in other foods.
Brazil Nut shells also harbour high levels of Aflatoxins, which can cause Liver cancer.
Atafloxins are not anything to do with Radioactivity, but are a fungus that grows on certain foods.
They are a very potent Toxin... carciogenic and can easily damage your Liver
You don't normally see this black fungus, or Aflatoxin on the outside of the dark Brazil Seed shell, as you do on
badly stored raw peanut shells...which clearly show up black against the light brown outside of the Peanut Shells.
Wash your hands thoroughly after cracking open the shells to eat them.
In fact I suggest you ditch them and buy a better quality, which does not show black on the outside shells.

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/impacts/aflatoxin/index.cfm

thanks Mike , I will try to remember that.

we have loads of blueberries in the U.S. and are growing more and more each year , perhaps russia would like a few boatloads , I think trade with a country such as russia that does not have the extremely low wages like china would be a better idea because trade with countries with higher wages would mean that the citizens of that country could afford to buy the products and produce that your country exports.

but thats just sensible thinking.

we in the U.S. are experiencing problems growing corn with the droughts and the above normal high temperatures , maybe theres a trade situation available for the european corn.

as the lack of corn will raise beef prices due to the lack of feed corn.

also in the U.S. every gallon of fuel must contain 10% ethanol
which is made from corn !!!

could the russian blueberries be used to make the ethanol so
that what corn we do produce can be used for feed or for human consumption , this way everyone wins.

also I love eating corn on the cob smothered with butter
but have stopped eating corn because of the GM foods concerns
about my family line becoming pigs or fish or some type of insect.

eating the non GM european corn sounds like a better idea.

I wonder how long it will be before we, or our offspring, are all eating GM foods and regarding it as normal. Could it be they will each have an extra ear like that unfortunate mouse?

I sure hope there were plenty of europeans who refused to grow GM crops and still arent growing them , they dont like the heat and theyre not drought resistant either.

in fact they are apx 3 ft tall (the tall ones) by now they should be over 6 ft tall...

the corn on the stalks is just junk , probably not even fit for feed corn or use in grains.

lets hope we have learned a lesson from this and buy the european non GM seeds this fall and next year.

corn is in almost everything we eat !!!

and apx 60% of the corn crop is in jeopardy according to the below video.

[Quote=Mike Kremer]

Mike Kremer replying to Paul, I am sorry to hear about the drought in the American mid-west. I understand it is so bad that the Corn (cob) is less than half the height it should be.
But can you be sure that your GM grown corn is any less drought resistant than non-GM or normal corn. If there is no water meaning no rain, nothing will grow, GM or not.
Hopefully your no rain is just a tempory aberation in the weather , similar to our crazy weather, where we have terrible flooding most everywhere in the UK.
The Worlds weather has gone over the top recently, with v bad flooding in Russia, and in Japan 100,000 people were relocated, just yesterday, because of flooding caused by rainstorms.
I suppose Corn could be made drought resistant given time, but altering Nature has its limitations.
Resistance to pests, weeds, and higher yields is what GM is all about. Which is why the farmer buys the GM seeds afresh every year. His greater yields equals greater profit.
I expect because of this... all the natural good and unknown attributes of Corn (cob) seed are genetically lost.
You cannot have everything....especially after hundreds of years of your Indian tribes cultivating and using it.
Then we came across it, and I believe we modernised it by naturally selecting and then only growing varieties with the fewest rows around the cob. Therebye ensuring the fattest corns. Later on the Geneticists modified the corn ...to the detriment of it, and every other living thing in the field.

Now, here is a thought....Is there a difference in root penetration depth, between natural corn, and GM corn!!

Is this an example of the disadvantage -(danger?)- of using GM crops? Due to the lack of genetic diversity of the crop a disaster will be inevitably fatal for the whole crop.

It's possible that a diverse number of species of corn could have had some survive even this drought, instead it sounds just like the potato famine all over again.

This is a problem with any monoculture crop. There is a tendency for people to find a form that is very advantageous and then use it exclusively. Then something can come up and cause a massive failure in that crop. That is one thing that led to the potato famine in Ireland. This was noticed quite some time back and there are people who are actively working to conserve the original strains of various crops so that they can have a fall back position.

Bill Gill

I dont know about that but the monsanto corn roots are being devoured by super rootworms

http://digitaljournal.com/article/326208

you would think that you could grow the corn stalks till they are several feet tall , then transplant the stalks into deep holes to bypass these worms that eat roots.

this way the corn roots would have access to the moist soil deeper down and maybe the worms dont dig down that deep to find roots to eat.

that would be a lot of work and more machinery would need to be designed and built to perform this extra work , but it might help , I cant tell...

I have some 3 ft tall corn ( should be over 6 ft by now )with the stunted growth cobs in my little garden , I could transplant a few this week and see if this would make a difference.

BTW , I have 2 collard plants in my garden that are 4 years old.

they look like rubber plants and yes they are the GM collard plants , the bugs wont touch them , neither will I.

I certainly havent eaten any of it , it never produces any seed either.

so , I cant breed the GM out of it.

I never water them , or fertilize them , or anything they just stay out there all year long every year , they have the same leaves on them that they produced the first year.

the leaves feel like rubber and they have a distinct shine to them.

Im trying to see how many years they will last.




we should add the planet to the list.

Later on the Geneticists modified the corn ...to the detriment of it and every living thing in the planet.