Joel Achenbach — The Pentagon Wants to Create a Bioengineered Insect Army to "Protect Crops"

Critics fear it could become a bio-weapon.…

The program, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has a warm and fuzzy name: 'Insect Allies'. But some critics find the whole thing creepy.

A team of skeptical scientists and legal scholars published an article in the journal Science on Thursday arguing that the Insect Allies program opens a "Pandora's box" and involves technology that "may be widely perceived as an effort to develop biological agents for hostile purposes and their means of delivery".

A website created by the critics puts their objection more bluntly: "The DARPA program is easily weaponized".

DARPA's program manager for Insect Allies, Blake Bextine, pushed back on the Science article, saying the program is solely for peaceful purposes, has been reviewed by government agencies responsible for agricultural safety and has multiple layers of safeguards built into the research protocols, including total containment of the insects.

Know anyone who believes the DARPA story? I've got a bridge to sell them.

Interesting read though.

Science Alert
The Pentagon Wants to Create a Bioengineered Insect Army to "Protect Crops" 

Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post

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