Yikes, unless you're growing silage! Joey -----Original Message----- From: Tim Eck Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 8:39 AM To: 'Pacific Bulb Society' Subject: Re: [pbs] GMOs I'm not certain I understand any of what you wrote: None of the transgenic pesticides target microfauna and certainly not in soil (that I know of). Prior to RoundUp, we were losing billions of tons of topsoil a year to erosion caused by tillage. It has no effect in soils and is destroyed by native soil bacteria. And yes, nearly all commercial and home garden crops are aliens which necessarily displace natives. The trend started about 15,000 years ago and led to civilization. Why would anybody make a pollen sterile crop that would have no yield? It sort of defeats the purpose of a crop. Tim -----Original Message----- From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of T O Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 10:38 AM To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [pbs] GMOs The problem with GMOs is absolutely the plants themselves, when they have pesticides built into their genes which have the unwanted effects of killing the micro fauna in the soil. "Round-up ready" is no better, facilitating the use of much herbicide. Monocrops in general displace enormous plots of land which was once home to thousands of species, including geophytes. Bottom line is the crops destroy biodiversity all around them. If a company can cross genes so unrelated, why couldn't they have made them pollen sterile? That would solve two problems. One to prevent contamination of organic growers crops and two to prevent seed formation, which they don't allow anyway due to the utility patents. Organic seed growers are required to have their crops tested yearly for the presence of GMOs, out of pocket. See http://wildgardenseed.com/articles/catalog-essays/ for some highly interesting essays on utility patents, GMO sugar beets, and common sense. That being said, there are only a few ornamental GMOs that I'm aware of (glow in the dark houseplants, blue rose attempts) and I'm sure they are grown with tissue culture, so I doubt their affect on the environment is as severe. -Travis