I agree with Tim. I'll throw something else in the mix. Even just the sun's UV rays can literally "genetcally modify" organisms - no? On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Tim Eck <teck11@embarqmail.com> wrote: > 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 > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >