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Re: The biotech discussion continues...
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Subject: Re: The biotech discussion continues...
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From: allan@mycroft.mmid.ualberta.ca (Allan Sharp)
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Date: 21 Jul 1996 01:07:53 GMT
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Article: 13763 of alt.sustainable.agriculture
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Distribution: world
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Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture
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Organization: Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Alberta
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References: <199607181332.GAA20504@coyote.rain.org>
Sal Schettino (sals@rain.org) wrote:
: I went to a lighthouse meeting yesterday and the topic was biocontrol and
: setting up sustainable beneficial colonies turning your land into a
: insectary with the right plants. What gets me about all this genetic
: engineering is that these old wise bug folks are not getting the funding
: they deserve and I was wondering why all this great work doesn't happen
: today. It use to be that right here in Souther Ca. right at U.C. Riverside
: we were the hub of bio-control. Then the bug department and the chemical
: department were separate and the bug department had team of folks that would
: go out in the field and work on pests and find beneficials that would
: control them bring them in . They were wining and gave us farmers control
: of lots of pests (black scale etc.) They were doing more there than
: anywhere in the world , and it was working. That has changed now all the
: research is going into genetic engineering. Now that's all you hear about
: is genetic engineering. I guess that is where the funding is.
Actually, cutbacks in government funding, to government institutions
and universities, affect public-domain research into genetic engineering
as much as more traditional fields of reseach. You should note that most
of the genetically engineered plants are coming from private companies, who
probably prefer this approach because of the potential for long-term
development, and because they can patent new breeds of organisms, while a
treatment based on a wild organism isn't going to be patentable.
Allan M. Sharp
(who agrees it's a shame that a lot of potentially valuble techniques are
getting ignored)