jane,
i'm hoping that i can ask, in a gentle and friendly way, "so what?" . . .
for example, if we are considering the various crops that have been
engineered to express various of the bt toxins, the genetic units that
encode the production of that toxin were taken from soil dwelling bacteria .
. . presumably those bacteria have been leaving their dna fragments in the
soil for aeons . . .
cheers,
craig
craig k harris
department of sociology
center for integrated plant systems
national food safety and toxicology center
institute for food and agricultural standards
michigan state university
429b berkey hall
east lansing michigan 48824-1111
tel: 517-355-5048
fax: 517-432-2856
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Jewett [mailto:jewet006@UMN.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday 30 April 2003 09:14
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Subject: Re: organic farmocidal maniacs
Regarding transgenic material that may remain in soil (such as from
engineered corn roots), there was an article in last week's Science News
magazine that might be relevant. The article was about recent research
showing that identifiable DNA fragments remain in soil for
millenia. Scientists tested soil cores from New Zealand and Siberia, and
found DNA sequences that they could trace to ancient plants and
animals. The oldest identifiable DNA fragment was in 400,000-year-old
sediment.
I'm in the process of getting permission to post the article on SANET, but
that is taking longer than I expected. You can read a brief summary
online, at: http://www.sciencenews.org/20030419/toc.asp. The title is,
"Fertile Ground: Snippets of DNA persist in soil for millenia." The
online summary includes references.
I posted an article not long ago about an isolation method for growing
transgenic crops that was developed by two Iowa farmers. I thought it
ought to work for preventing pollen drift off-site, but as j. cummins
pointed out, the soil is another matter. Especially if soil is such a
great reservoir of DNA.
Jane
At 03:14 PM 4/29/2003 -0400, you wrote:
GM crop controls questioned
Company gets second fine, and a report examines adequacy of regulation
and oversight. | By Ted Agres
The EPA announced last week that Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
(Des Moines, Iowa), had paid a $72,000 fine in March. The penalty was
imposed after the company had failed to promptly report test data
showing that a gene engineered to protect against corn rootworm had
contaminated other experimental plants in an adjacent field at the
company's isolated research facility in Kauai, Hawaii.
Jane Grimsbo Jewett
Information Exchange
Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
University of Minnesota
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The best manure for the land is the owner's footprint
--Aristotle, Economics (paraphrased)