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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (98870)	5/23/2003 6:29:32 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (2) of 281500

One lady even called in and tried to claim that we should never modify "god's plants" since we could never improve upon them... I guess she never heard of hybridization, grafting, and cross-pollenization. Or indeed selective breeding... perhaps she believes wheat grew naturally like that. I do have qualms about incorporating new genes into products other than by breeding. I'm not sure how stable the resultant genes will be; will they be more prone to migrate to other creatures (because they've been artificially attached)? Then, if (for example) all US soya is immune to Round-Up, what happens if an established pest gets this immunity? This is particularly worrying when crops are developed incorporating new defence mechanisms taken from other plants; predator species (virii especially) evolve so fast, if they develop an immunity or resistance to this new alien defence then both the new and old plants are in danger. The saga of antibiotic resistance developing as a result of such overuse (particularly in animals) is one reason I have these misgivings.

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