[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: Musings of Mr. Sal Schettino



In Article <199604261830.LAA06988@coyote.rain.org>, sals@rain.org (Sal
Schettino) wrote:

At this point, after reading Sal's comments for the last few years, I
generally ignore them. However, this time I fel I must respond.

>It is my understanding that one  cannot own rights to a natural insects, so to
>make the research pay off and make big money in bio-control one will want to
>own the insect.[snip] It is my understanding that to own an
>insect you have to build one in the lab by adding genes.

I presume you're referring to patents here? People may own insects.
Beekeepers (and those rearing other species as biocontrols) own their
colonies, do they not? Furthermore, if one can either identify a new species
or produce a new, useful strain of insect by natural means (eg. develop a
new biocontrol by conventional breeding, not necessarily genetic
engineering), then one can potentially obtain a patent on a "natural"
species, or new strain, without "adding genes in the lab".

>The killer bees show me that bugs do  get away and once released bugs
>breed and genes change and I worry that the new added genes may change the
>natural system and can not be stopped once released. IMHO we need to
>understand and research bio-controls that are here now naturally and  not
>make the job harder by inventing new ones in the lab with genes from who
>knows where.  Will they cross with wild insects?  How you going to keep them
>down on the farm.  Look at the killer bee.  How fast have the killer bees
>changing genes naturally? "They are  making our nice honey bees which we
>farmers need into killers bees.

This isn't the first time you've brought this up Sal, nor is it the first
time I've corrected you on this point. "Killer bees" are not the result of
genetic engineering experiments escaping from the lab. This repeated
dissemination of misinformation is irresponsible.
Tracy



References: