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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan Spillane who wrote (1416)	2/28/1999 7:02:00 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Respond to of 2539

It isn't the Prince's fault, he has been told by Greenpeace et al. that these things are true...and the tabloids back him up on this, ad infinitum. Yes they are true, regardless of the context. And now, the bureaucracy of the tabloids backs him up even more. Free press doesn't exist in the UK...only "tabloid" press. Apparently the tabloid press was threatened by the Royal Science Society's letter. Imagine: if people learned science, they wouldn't need to read bad science in the paper. Big industry, ya know. (from the article) "I suspect that planting herbicide resistant crops will lead to more chemicals being used on our fields, not fewer." >"SUSPECT"? Oh really, why doesn't he ask a farmer? Also, what about the fact that farmland is saved since plowing isn't needed. Plowing is a major source of soil erosion. "But this isn't the whole story. Such sterile fields will offer little or no food or shelter to wildlife, and there is already evidence that the genes for herbicide resistance can spread to wild relatives of crop plants, leaving us with weeds resistant to weedkiller." > Suddenly fields without weeds are "sterile"? And if genes for resistance to Roundup got out, why not use any one of the many other herbicides? "Plants producing their own pesticides sound like a wonderful idea, until you find - as the scientists have - that beneficial insects, like lacewings and ladybirds, are also affected. And because the pesticide will be everywhere in the crop it is predicted that the pests will rapidly acquire resistance to it. What do we do then?" > What to do with fields full of dead (rather than just "affected") lacewings and ladybirds when chemical pesticides are used? Is the Prince aware the issue of resistance has already been addressed by "refuges"?