h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Websailor

I'm not going to comment on this at all. Not until the OU has Educated me on the subject. Interestingly the course started off with a questionnaire about my attitudes to GM crops. I have to repeat the questionnaire at the end of the course. It will be very interesting to see how much my views have changed.

I'll keep you posted.

Fb

Frenchbean,

I shall be most interested in your comments and reactions. I had already decided on my subject, and done some research when I read what you were going to be doing. I shall value your opinions highly when you are even more educated.

I made no attempt to do anything like an edited Guide Entry. I just wanted to make people think. if they want to know more there is plenty of scientific comment elsewhere. I don't feel is the place for' in depth' articles and I tried not to let it deteriorate in to a rant.

Websailor

We have a law here that a genetically modified tomato/poatato/sweetcorn or whatever has to be declared, so that consumers can avoid buying it (a very large amount of Germany's population is against GM food). However, if somebody uses a GM tomato and makes a spread out of it, it doesn't have to be declared, ie. the modifed product does not need to declare that its basis stuff is GM.
I really hope they'll better the law soon, to protect the consumers here, and with that maybe the farmers on the long run, cause if they can't sell GM products, they'll hopefully stop planting them.

I agree, too many things are hidden from us in devious ways. I have a feeling that by the time laws and standards are set legally, that it might be too late to identify many products that contain GM ingredients. In terms of wildlife I suspect the damage may have been done already! That might be the only good thing about patenting and markers, that the problem can be traced back to source. I can't see any of the perpetrators taking responsibility for it though.

Websailor

A fascinating read, as ever, Websailor

I remember reading somewhere, that they have oil seed rape growing along grass verges in Canada that is near enough indestructible. Three different genetic modifications from three different years' crops had gone wild and cross pollinated each other and now no insect or herbicide can touch the resulting super-rape. Don't know whether to or at that one. Also, monarch butterflies migrating to South America are finding nowhere to lay their eggs when they arrive. All the milkweed they depend on, has been eliminated by the roundup/glyphosate being used to dowse crops that have been modified to make them immune to poisoning by glyphosate. Very sad.

Every time I hear reassurances from the gm scientists, it reminds me of how the tobacco companies could buy scientists to reassure people that tobacco didn't cause lung cancer.

I'll stick with organic, thank you very much