The article below brings to light a whole new fear of genetically modified crops. Not only is the question how damaging to health the crops are today, but as this story points out. .... what happens if there is a mutation of the modification? That opens up a whole new world of hurt and damage. The mutation tbat seemed to happen during the Texas drought produced grass that produces deadly poison in high amounts. What would happen if a similar event happened with GM corn, soybeans, or alfalfa. Suddenly we have a uncontrollable situation.
I say, better to let nature alone. GM crops have produced no benefit to date, only damage. It appears we are only now realizing how bad playing god in this delicate area can be.
Unfortunately the article is full of errors, and CBS really ought to be running a correction. Tifton 85 is not a GM grass at all, it's a hybrid produced by ordinary hybrid crossing techniques. From what I can discover, it came out of U Georgia. Also, cattle poisoning from prussic acid (cyanide) is a known hazard that can be caused by a variety of grasses, particularly in young growth in nitrogen-rich and phosphorus-poor soils, and particularly in regrowth after drought stress.
ReplyDeleteI am not a huge fan of GM crops, but this is not a GM crop problem. Shame on CBS for sensationalizing a non-story.
You are absolutely correct. My apologies die not double checking this myself! I assumed since this came from CBS that it was trustworthy.
ReplyDeleteThere are articles from many sources now correcting this error, but the original stories are also still floating around.
However, I still stand by the fear around mutations of GMO crops, even though this occurance plainly isn't one. It seems a real danger that we have produced a new combination of genetics that will inevitably mutate into some new and potentially damaging combination, a combination that could not be possible through nature.
Thanks for being astute enough to catch this one!
Wow! Thank you for being brave enough to confront this politically charged issue! and on the business website moreover... This really gives me hope for the world we will leave our children. I find it very frustrating and unfortunate to watch and read all the misinformation being spread around in the media about the facts of what threats exist with the growing and eating of Genetically engineered plants and now animals. This is extremely high tech stuff that has not been properly tested over time and we are using us and our kids as experiements. We dont even have a choice in the matter as they fight the mandate of labeling foods that have been Genetically altered. I too am fearful of what we will be seeing a couple generations down the road if we dont stop this madness.
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