Cornell Report - Industry Response

Anne Kilmer viceroy at anu.ie
Thu May 27 11:22:49 EDT 1999


I was going to sit this one out ... but never mind. At Martha Robinson's
request ... 
On-line searches from Ireland are prohibitively expensive, so I will
have to use my well-practiced memory. 
As I recall, the incidents of genetically-jiggered plants cited were
pretty garbled. 
One, referring to a "weed" adjusted to resist herbicide, obviously
refers to the Roundup-ready soy Monsanto created. This allows increased
use of the herbicide, rather than reduced use ... and ensures that the
people most afraid of designer crops are going to have to depend on them
... as soy, like most legumes, is genetically very suggestible and now
all the soy is Roundup ready. So much for the health food freaks.
For Monsanto had not yet, when this came out, thought up the Terminator
Gene.    
According to some studies, Roundup kills soil organisms, and is also
hard on non-target plants it's sprayed around. 
The potato is another matter. The toxin installed in the potato,
experimentally, was snowdrop lectin; a formidable toxin indeed; so nasty
that it keeps bears from eating snowdrop bulbs. And so, when the
potatoes made the rats sick, guess what? The scientists decided it was a
dud, and It Was Never Marketed.
	The scientist in question posted a long explanation on Entomo-L, which,
if you are industrious, you can doubtless find. 
I feel that the Bt engineered crops will simply produce Bt-resistant
pest organisms. And I have heard that this is already taking place.   
But the Bt designed for Beetles, we are assured, does not affect moths,
or vice versa, and the mosquito Bt only kills them and their kin. Which,
in my opinion, is bad enough. 
Perhaps the end of the world is at hand, John Christopher (No Blade of
Grass) is right after all, and the world's huge population will
presently be reduced to a few mutants living in caves, who, in their
religious rituals, chant placatory rhymes cursing Monsanto and the USDA.
	I hope that those who View with Alarm the Terminator Gene are quite,
quite wrong and that everything is going to be perfectly fine. Because
when the USDA has an idea (kudzu to halt erosion, melaleuca trees to dry
out the Everglades, Brazilian pepper as everyman's hedge plant)  it is
difficult to persuade our respected friends to slow down and consider
the possible consequences. And yes, yes, they're doing much better ...
the melaleuca weevil was well researched. Sort of.
Although they should have used grackles rather than mocking birds, if
they really wanted to know whether the local birds would eat the things.
However, I am spending two months on my Irish mountain not being worried
and bothered, and a speckled wood butterfly has just banged against the
window indicating that I am supposed to come out and play, so I don't
feel I can expound at length about the value of studies paid for by the
people who have already decided what results they want. 
Instead I will go out and admire a garden composed almost entirely of
exotic invasive plants, and perhaps go at the wind-burned lonicera hedge
with my little Japanese saw, and let somebody else save civilization
this week. Paul, maybe. For, as he points out, there is no moral high
ground and all we can do is treat each other kindly. 
Cheers
Anne Kilmer
County Mayo
Ireland


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