*Tim wrote: *When I joined The American Chestnut Foundation, whose original intent was to breed a blight resistant forest adapted 'American' chestnut by introducing the blight resistance of the asian chestnuts, I found myself exposed to many conflicting opinions. I thought it especially interesting that some of the same progressive thinkers who believed in integration of the entire human 'race' (species) were absolute racists when it came to hybridizing the American chestnut. And although I had always gardened organically before, I thought that genetic engineering involving insertion of genes like Bt which would negate the necessity of pesticides would be a godsend, I was amazed that the 'organic community' seemed to think it was the devil's work. And, I am truly amazed that some people consider insertion of the OXO gene in the American chestnut some sort of tragic hubris subject to karmic retribution. No clue what it has to do with "Wild collecting". But in greater scheme of things. Dinosaurs got extinct but the world is still spinning. Guess if we don't hybridize the American chestnut with Asian Chestnut or insert some genes it could get extinct from blight. But that would not stop the world from spinning either. Aad _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…