mbox: Organic food supply under attack all over

Lawrence F. London, Jr. (london@svr1.nuteknet.com)
Mon, 24 Feb 1997 12:35:06 -0500

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Lawrence F. London, Jr.
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<!-- received="Fri Feb 21 17:32:52 1997 EST" --> <!-- sent="Fri, 21 Feb 1997 15:21:16 -0500" --> <!-- name="Joe Toth" --> <!-- email="nntp-xfer.ncsu.edu!gatech!news-out.communique.net!news3.epix.net!cdc2.cdc.net!neJoe Toth" --> <!-- subject="Organic food supply under attack all over" --> <!-- id="Joe Toth" --> <!-- inreplyto="" --> <title>mbox: Organic food supply under attack all over</title> <h1>Organic food supply under attack all over</h1> Joe Toth (<i>nntp-xfer.ncsu.edu!gatech!news-out.communique.net!news3.epix.net!cdc2.cdc.net!neJoe Toth</i>)<br> <i>Fri, 21 Feb 1997 15:21:16 -0500</i> <p> <ul> <li> <b>Messages sorted by:</b> <a href="date.html#14">[ date ]</a><a href="index.html#14">[ thread ]</a><a href="subject.html#14">[ subject ]</a><a href="author.html#14">[ author ]</a> <!-- next="start" --> <li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0015.html">Joe Toth: "CA Organic Act does not bar use of genes tinkered seeds!"</a> <li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0013.html">zzyxx: "USE YOUR COMPUTER TO MAKE $$$$, FAST AND EASY"</a> <!-- nextthread="start" --> </ul> <!-- body="start" --> At the moment organic foods are thought safe. But soon we will not<br> be so sure.<br> <p> If that safety were gone, only home-grown food or community support farm food<br> grown far enough away from genetically manipulated / genetically<br> engineered (g.e) <br> plants, or sprouts could be natural and safe,<br> given that the seeds were not g.e'd. We would also have to consider the soil<br> in which they were grown. <br> <p> <p> 1. In 1996 there were only about two seed companies that sold the <br> genetically manipulated seed. Next year Monsanto predicts that 90 <br> seed companies will be established in the marketplace. These large <br> biotech-chemical companies are moving to control the entire world's <br> food supply through genetic manipulation of national and <br> international seed. Monsanto has made a deal with Empresas La <br> Moderna, a seed company with 22 percent of the world market share in <br> vegetable seeds to provide biotechnology-derived vegetable traits. <br> How will you distinguish these seeds from natural seeds? Or one <br> squash from another? (From Eileen Danneman)<br> <p> 2. The organic industry is under assault, just as the ecosystem is, by the<br> active, on-going cross-pollination of genetically engineered plants with other<br> plants and microorganisms. Given the range of insect and wind pollination<br> (birds, too) transgenes have been found at unforetold distances in nontargeted<br> plants and crops. <br> <p> I might add that bees can bring pollen from genetically engineered crops or<br> plants to the hive and affect the honey.<br> <p> Gene-altered organisms cannot be kept apart from their wild and<br> cultivated relatives <br> <p> Here is a sampling of studies:<br> <p> - - Scientific studies show the high frequency and wide range of gene flow<br> between ge'd crops and normal crops, eg, potatoes. <br> (Skogsmyr l (1994) Gene dispersal from transgenic potaotes to<br> conspecifics: A field trial. Theor. Appl. Genet 88: 770-774).<br> <p> - - Much more pollen escapes from large fields of genetically engineered<br> oilseed<br> rape (used for canola oil) than is predicted from earlier experiments on<br> smaller plots. Escaping pollen fertilized plants up to 2.5 kilometers away. <br> (Scottish Crop Research Institute Annual Report 1994. SCRI,<br> Invergowrie,<br> Dundee, Scotland)<br> <p> - - Spillage of crop seeds in transport over the hundreds of miles between<br> seed<br> merchant, farmer and processing factory, could be "more worrying" than the<br> threat through pollen spread. (New Scientist 6 July, 1996)<br> <p> - - It was found with 4 ge'd plants all containing an antibiotic-resistance<br> gene<br> (oilseed rape, black mustard, torn-apple and sweep peas) when grown together<br> with a fungus (Aspeergillus niger), or their leaves were added to the soil,<br> that the fungus incorporated the antibiotic resistance gene in all co-culture<br> experiments. <br> (Hoffman T. Golz C &amp; Schieder O (1994) Foreign DNA sequences are<br> received<br> by<br> a wild-type strain of Aspergillus niger after co-culture with transgenic<br> higher<br> plants. Curr. Genet. 27: 70-76). <br> It is worth noting that micro-organisms can transfer genes through several<br> mechanisms to other unrelated micro-organisms.<br> <p> Other unexpected effects <br> <p> Soil bacteria ge'd to transform plant residues like leaves into ethanol<br> survived, competed successfully with parent strains and unexpectedly inhibited<br> growth or killed off grass in different soil types. It decreased beneficial<br> fungi in all the soils tested. These soil fungi are crucial for plant health<br> and growth because they help plants take up nutrition and resist common<br> diseases. In clay soils the ge'd bacterium increased as well as the number of<br> root-feeding nematodes. <br> (Holmes T M &amp; Ingram E R (1995) The effects of genetically engineered<br> microorganisms on soil foodwebs. In "Supplement to Bulletin of Ecological<br> Society of America 75.2)<br> <p> A bacteria ge'd for degrading an herbicide broke it down but also degraded<br> into<br> a substance that was highly toxic to fungi and destroyed them. These fungi<br> were crucial to soil fertility and in protecting plants against diseases.<br> (Doyle JK, Stotzky G, McClung G &amp; Hendricks C W (1995) Effects of Genetically<br> Engineered Microorganisms on Microbial Populations and Processes in natural<br> Habitats, Advances in Applied Microbiology, Vol. 40 (Academic Press)).<br> <p> <a href="http://www.lisco.com/edit/mothers">http://www.lisco.com/edit/mothers</a><br> <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/cbio/geneng.html">http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/cbio/geneng.html</a><br> <a href="http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/toxmut/flavr.html#cflower">http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/toxmut/flavr.html#cflower</a><br> <a href="http://www.demon.co.uk/solbaram/articles/clm505.html">http://www.demon.co.uk/solbaram/articles/clm505.html</a><br> <a href="http://www.natural-law.org/issues/genetics/ge_hazards.html">http://www.natural-law.org/issues/genetics/ge_hazards.html</a><br> <a href="http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rone/Genetic%20Engineering.htm">http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rone/Genetic%20Engineering.htm</a><br> <a href="http://www.netlink.de/gen/home.html">http://www.netlink.de/gen/home.html</a><br> <a href="http://www.mum.edu/PRESS/genetics/ethical_stand.html">http://www.mum.edu/PRESS/genetics/ethical_stand.html</a><br> <a href="http://www.bio-integrity.org">http://www.bio-integrity.org</a><br> <a href="http://www.peg.apc.org/~acfgenet">http://www.peg.apc.org/~acfgenet</a><br> <a href="http://www.nemsn.org/ems/html/">http://www.nemsn.org/ems/html/</a> tryptophan<br> <!-- body="end" --> <p> <ul> <!-- next="start" --> <li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0015.html">Joe Toth: "CA Organic Act does not bar use of genes tinkered seeds!"</a> <li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0013.html">zzyxx: "USE YOUR COMPUTER TO MAKE $$$$, FAST AND EASY"</a> <!-- nextthread="start" --> </ul>

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