According to the article, 70% of the world’s production of canola production is GM modified. Now to me that is scary that companies like Monsanto and Bayer now control that much of the seed bank for this particular commercial species.
(Genetically modified plants are changed from the original genetic stock, by borrowing genetic material from other plants or even animals, supposedly to improve, their yield, pest & disease resistance, weedicide or pesticide resistance, or for some other usually economic value in a commercial crop).
But how long will it be before some ‘Genetic Modifiers’ will be used to change things like Tulips and Roses just to give us the elusive true Black and/or Blue flowers in these species, or indeed just to provide some other commercially gimmicky flower or plant just to make a quick buck….
My main concern is that these plants will pollute the rest of the environmental and even our ordinary garden plant communities with GM modified pollen and even cross pollinated seed, curtesy of the natural pollinating methods of wind and insects.
We humans seem to have a bad reputation for taking steps to alter our natural environment, without any real consideration for the future impact of what we are doing in the present. Sometimes this has been in an attempt to fix past mistakes and at other times it has been for a purely monetary, or even just for aesthetic reasons. Or because of alazy streak in our nature.
On the upside though, the research into genetic material may also provide better disease control for us humans and other plant and animal species, and may help bring many endangered and even dead species back from the brink of extinction. But it will also get to the point of where we will have problems keeping pure stocks of genetic material safe outside of the laboratory…..
We are going to see a time in the future when plants that we now grow from seed, and this includes what we now call ‘open pollinated’ and heirloom varieties, will have to be pollinated and propagated in a closed environment, just to protect the original genetic stock of each species or variety, away from genetically modified or even F1 hybrid plant material.
To me indeed the whole GM debate is putting us on a very slippery slope of possible future changes in the plant and even animal kingdoms, which we really cannot tell the impact of. It also brings up issues of ethics of where should we be imposing our scientific discoveries & talents and where should we be leaving nature to do it’s own thing, before she turns around and brings things back to balance again in her own way without our control or imput.
Will we even get to the point where we humans ourselves become a series of subspecies modified to be better adapted to be comfortable in environments we are not used to at the moment, Zero Gravity, High Gravity, Underwater, Flying…….
Seed Newsvine
3 comments:
They did look at the monarch butterfly and the effects of GM species ...the pesticide imbued pollen decimated the numbers...they modified it so that the butterflies wouldn't die from it, but are unsure of what the longterm build up effects of the pesticide may be on the monarch species.
That was a visible effect that they hadn't planned on...what about the things not quite so measureable on things smaller than a monarch butterfly: species increase and decrease...microorganisms, microbes, bacteria...and at a cellular level...dna. Then apply it further to soil, air and water quality.
Oh yeah, and what about the pesticide resistant super bugs that will evolve...interestingly they looked at creating insect corridors as well...er apparently mass migration was an issue.
Another clever solution from science.
Fantastic Post and a real eye opener. I am no expert in the field and only recently took an interest after reading a similar article you cited a few days ago.
The point I found most interesting from your post was to broadening it to animals and eventually us. Where do you stop? Where do you draw the line? Who should draw the line?
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What are your thoughts on ethanol instead of oil?
For example I notice that even though the U.S produced more corn then ever before this year because of the demand to create ethanol with it the overall price has gone up effecting many products. Even beer shock horror.
Perhaps this will drive a thirst for GM grains to fuel as it were the ethanol industry.
What about the more distant relatives of canola, the brassicas? Have any tests been done as to the gm contamination possibilities for broccoli, cabbage, radish, chinese cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, even wasabi? Or have the genes already jumped over while we were distracted? They are a major segment of the food chain, their contamination and loss would be more than significant for the whole planets future??aoz
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