I believe that the worst problem with GMO treated food crops is that they come to your table with residual pesticides (roundup) and their by products. I do not want to eat roundup! Richard Vista, CA -----Original Message----- From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of T O Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 7:38 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