GM: Mother Nature has a habit of striking back!
Saturday, August 09th, 2008 | Author: News Team
Today’s news that British poultry producers are facing ever increasing premiums on the price of South American grown GM-free soya feed – due to the disturbing fact that overseas soya producers are increasingly switching to gm-soya - prompts us to reprint a story that Land & People posted two years ago this very month.
We reported then:
According to a report in the New York Times, an unapproved variety of genetically engineered grass has been discovered growing in the wild in what scientists say could be the first instance in the United States in which a biotechnology plant has established itself outside a farm or GM test zone.
Ecologists claim to have found the grass plants growing in central Oregon close to a site used for GM field tests a few years ago.
Although it is not thought that grass will pose an ecological threat, it is considered proof that GM field tests cannot be adequately controlled.
One ecologist commented: ‘It is a cautionary tale that you have to think about the possibility of plants escaping into populations where there are wild relatives present!’
This variety of genetically modified grass, called creeping bentgrass, is being developed by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and Monsanto - apparently for use on golf courses! It differs from natural varieties of grass, having an additional bacterial gene that makes the grass resistant to certain herbicides. The purpose behind this designer grass is to allow groundskeepers to spray golf course greens and fairways with herbicide without damaging the grass! A trivialisation of science if ever there was - in our opinion!
Currently the United States Department of Agriculture is considering whether, or not, to approve the GM grass. Their decision may be influenced by a paper published two years ago by scientists at a laboratory in Oregon. This paper showed that pollen from a test plot of the grass had spread as far as 13 miles downwind! That made it likely that genetically engineered grass would be found in the wild, though the scientists did not look for it specifically.
The problem for GM field-testing, for species that produce air borne pollen, is obvious just how do you prevent contamination outside of the test sites?
Once again an unforeseen consequence has come to light, one that fortunately does not appear to have any major significant ramifications. But how long will it be before some well-meaning GM trial results in an opening of a biological Pandora’s Box with dire consequences for all humanity?
Mother Nature has a habit of striking back!
A worrying tale by anyone’s standards! However, as more and more acreage in South America is turned over to the production of GM-soya for its oil (the vegetable residue being processed into chicken feed), we are left wondering just how do producers ensure that their GM-free crops remain free of GM contamination?
