John Pleasants

My research deals with the environmental effects of GMO crop plants. Much of this has focused on the monarch butterfly. Earlier work examined whether pollen from Bt corn had detrimental effects on larvae of monarch butterflies. More recently we have looked at the effect on the monarch butterfly population of the loss of milkweeds in agricultural fields due to use of Roundup herbicide with Roundup-Ready corn and soybeans. Another project examined the potential for gene flow from GM cotton grown in Hawaii to the native Hawaiian cotton species.