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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (107053)	7/31/2005 12:30:19 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Honestly, Ish, if you believe that GM technology will lead to fewer pesticides/herbicides in the future, I think the people who profit from all of this must be bullshitting you (everyone is entitled to their opinion). I am certainly not trying to. I'm just trying to have a civilized discussion. When you say "Why they didn't try glyphosate like we use here and would have probably killed the charlock is beyond me. I did notice where the charlock seeds wouldn't germinate . . ." that kind of changes what happened with the charlock seeds, and overlooks wind pollenation and the extremely long lifecycle of the plant. Two turnip seeds did germinate, and were found to be herbicide resistant. It would also be interesting if you would comment on the whole list of herbicide resistant incidents with GM seed discussed further on in the article. Here is the more complicated story of the charlock: What is not clear in the English case is whether the charlock was fertile. Scientists collected eight seeds from the plant but they failed to germinate them and concluded the plant was "not viable". But Dr Johnson points out that the plant was very large and produced many flowers. He said: "There is every reason to suppose that the GM trait could be in the plant's pollen and thus be carried to other charlock in the neighbourhood, spreading the GM genes in that way. This is after all how the cross-fertilisation between the rape and charlock must have occurred in the first place." Since charlock seeds can remain in the soil for 20 to 30 years before they germinate, once GM plants have produced seeds it would be almost impossible to eliminate them. Although the government has never conceded that gene transfer was a problem, it was fear of this that led the French and Greek governments to seek to ban GM rape. Emily Diamond, a Friends of the Earth GM researcher, said: "I was shocked when I saw this paper. This is what we were reassured could not happen - and yet now it has happened the finding has been hidden away. This is exactly what the French and Greeks were afraid of when they opposed the introduction of GM rape."