GE nightmare

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Here's another tricky little one - wheat that repels aphids with pheromones so that insecticide use can be avoided. I mean, it sounds great, but what are the implications for the wider food chain? Are these even being considered?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17542627

[oldjerry]

Would their consideration affect profit margins?...

[Mustardseedmama]

as i said before, extream causion is needed when dealing with nature.
and GMO is in no way without its problems,
but i believe it is possibe to create somthing benificial that is safe to use that wont damage the ecosystems.

I know this is an old thread, but I thought you might be interested in this. I live in a very rural area of Missouri. Most of what gets grown around here is beef, hay, and the typical corn/wheat/soybean rotation. There is much debate about genetically modified corn here, and big business is bulldozing what few small local farmers we have here with all kinds of "incentives" to plant G.M. corn and beans.

It just so happens that I am friends with a man who owns a large seed/gardening operation. He went late last summer to a convention given by a major seed producer. At dinner that evening, they were served grilled chicken, cole slaw, and corn on the cob. My friend noticed that the corn had a very "off" taste, reminiscent of the way the chemical section of his store smells. He asked where the corn had come from and what kind it was. You guessed it. It was G.M. corn, grown from seeds licensed (and tightly regulated) by the big "M". It was inedible.

If you drive down a state highway as the sun is setting around here, you notice some cornfields have little signs every hundred feet or so, listing the type of corn, the batch number on the seed, etc....and some fields have no such signs. It's odd that you don't see deer in the "Big Ag" fields nearly as often. They know better than to eat the stuff. Nature tells the deer it isn't right.

I have tasted G.M. sweet corn, and after struggling through three bites on one ear, I chucked it to my chickens. They wouldn't eat it either. It ended up in the garbage.

I know it's in many products we buy, and we can't tell the difference, because of the processing. But it's not right, and we're going to end up paying in the end, and I don't mean in dollars, pounds, or euros.

[safronsue]

common sense surely must tell us not to go messing with nature's balance when the effects could be irreversible.

[contadina]

Thanks for sharing your experiences Mustardseedmama.It reminds me of a biotech conference I attended in Washington many years ago (the one where Bush called Europe anti-science owing to its GM ban). Lunch was prepared for journalists using only GM-produced produce, with the intention that everyone would love the free food and gush about it in their respective journals. The plan back-fired, however, because although the food presentation looked impressive, the taste was so bland that everyone just picked at a few bits before we all decided to go into Georgetown for an organic lunch.

[oldfella]

Would their consideration affect profit margins?...

Of course not, they are doing it for the sake of Humanity.

[greenorelse]

there have never been any effects on humans from eating genetically engineered crops.

demi, please provide links to independent, peer-reviewed studies confirming this.

[MKG]

Well ... I have to say that GM is an immensely useful technology which could benefit mankind. In a lab. Under strict lab conditions. Run by people who know the importance of strict lab conditions. We could end up with thousands of useful new medicines.

Releasing something which belongs in a lab into the environment is hardly describable as strict lab conditions. It is, though, complete insanity. It's moronic. It's dangerous. I'll go out a a slight limb and suggest that it is impossible to keep track of the transmission vectors which are ALREADY in operation. We have no idea what we've done.

People sometimes ask me why I detest the expression "Business is business". This is why.

Mike

[bonniethomas06]

It is not the physical side effects that terrifies me, it is the prospect of allowing a greedy corporation to 'own' and licence genetic material, which is spooky!

Put 'Vandana Shiva' into Youtube - she describes the problems far more eloquently than I ever could.

[Odsox]

In a lab.

Didn't we decide that grammar was sliding to oblivion ?
Constructing a sentence without a verb ?

Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said.

[MKG]

Sorry, Tony - I just got so excited!!!!

Mike

[Odsox]

Fairy nuff, I'll overlook it this time ......