Activists Destroy Scientific GMO Experiment 1229
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the not-in-my-garden dept.
from the not-in-my-garden dept.
Freggy writes "In Belgium, a group of activists calling themselves the Field Liberation Movement has destroyed a field which was being used for a scientific experiment with genetically modified potatoes. In spite of the presence of 60 police officers protecting the field, activists succeeded pulling out the plants and sprayed insecticides over them, ruining the experiment. The goal of the experiment was to test potato plants which are genetically modified to be resistant to potato blight. It's a sad day for the freedom of scientific research."
I'm more concerned about the GM business (Score:5, Interesting)
Monsanto is all that anyone needs to say these days to show what is most wrong with GM foods. I'm sure all sorts of amazing and magical things can come of GM foods research. But when it is used as a weapon to destroy people and to control something as vital as food for humanity for profit, I have to say NO MORE GM FOOD. Once the problem of commercial exploitation is resolved, then let's revisit the many potential benefits of GM foods.
And before anyone says "profits pay for the research" I will just say I don't care. Find another way that doesn't involve using the results to dominate and drive private farmers out of business and off their land.
Re:I'm more concerned about the GM business (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't care either way. (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't care for the tactics used here, and of course many researchers in this area really are just legitimately working on ways to increase food yields.
On the other hand, there really are plenty of rapacious Monsantos and wannabes out there, who have quite legitimately given the whole thing a bad name. So I do understand the backlash.
Honestly, they'd do a lot better to try and get genetic patents eliminated. That's what causes a great deal of the harm here, whereas those interested in altruism or a reasonable profit don't need them. Unfortunately, those aren't so easy to uproot as a potato.
Re:GMO scientists, who do you think you are? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like (Score:5, Interesting)
If you file patents on any GM product that has the capacity to cross-contaminate natural organisms with your patented gene thereby giving you the opportunity to sue people for growing crop with your contaminated gene then you should be thrown in the same pool as Monsanto.
If engineering a plant that allows you to douse them with weedkillers killing all weeds while not affecting the plant and you tell the public there will be no repercussions from said practice then superweeds show up on the scene that are resistant to herbicides then you should be thrown in the same pool with Monsanto
If your internal documents show that you knew of many problems but you lied to the public then you should be thrown in the same pool as Monsanto
The question then becomes. What procedures are in place to absolutely 100% prevent these scenarios and many more from happening?
Re:Sounds like (Score:2, Interesting)
That's certainly one way to look at it.
Another might be to say that the profit-driven corporations who want to grow these crops have little regard for the potential, irreversible consequences that could occur in the ecosystem and that these people are protecting that ecosystem from catastrophic damage. In which case you could characterise these protesters as Defenders agaust the selfish, and irresposible profit-seeking bio-companies.
oblig. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Different plants are DIFFERENT (Score:4, Interesting)
1) the total number of lawsuit Monsanto has files against farmers is in the low hundreds. (And most of these were for saving patented seeds to replant the next year. Which I still think is an abuse of intellectual property law, but has nothing to do with cross pollination).
2) Different plant species have different rates of outcrossing (mating with another plant instead of itself). A corn plant for example, will mate almost entirely with other corn plants and very little with itself. A tomato will mate almost entirely with itself.
3) Potato plants are at even less risk of outcrossing because they are propagated clonally. Potatoes from one year are cut up and planted in the ground to grow next year's crop and produce plants genetically identical to their single parent. No mating = no cross pollination.
In conclusion it seems likely you have not taken a course in biology since high school (which you likely slept through) and despite clearly feeling very passionate about the debate on genetic engineering, have not bothered to inform yourself on the issue, despite abundant and diverse sources of information.
Re:Sounds like (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not funny at all. When I was doing my undergrad in the natural sciences a decade ago it was pretty well established in the scientific community that the potential for a catastrophic fuck up was there. The question is how much do you trust the folks doing the experiments to not fuck it up in that fashion. It depends on the foods, but not all foods are equally easily cultivated and some food stuffs have gone extinct within the last hundred years, such as the old school bananas.
Nobody but a shill is going to claim that there isn't a potential for a very serious fuck up and the genes definitely are spreading in the wild as we speak. The only question is how bad is it going to be. Adding one gene here or there alone isn't going to cause too much trouble, but when the genes start to combine in ways that we haven't predicted it could get very ugly very quickly. And things like the round up ready modification have already spread to the weeds for which round up was going to be used.
Re:Sounds like (Score:5, Interesting)
Selective breeding cannot create traits that do not already exist in the gene stock. When you insert a completely novel gene there's a much greater chance for unpredictable results.
GM crops are a good thing, but they shouldn't be treated just like selective breeding. They should undergo safety testing as rigorous as pharmaceuticals.
Re:Sounds like (Score:2, Interesting)
Funny. Some seem to be local farmers, with a few scientists also into the mix.
Re:Sounds like (Score:5, Interesting)
What if you can't choose not to buy it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of me doesn't like the kind of mob action described in the summary but OTOH if governments are going to choose the well being of corporations over the rights of citizens to know what they are eating... it kind of seems like they are asking for this sort of thing to occur.
Re:Its economic, rather than scientific (Score:5, Interesting)
I do not think many slashdotters would understand, that world over, resistance to bio engineered and gene modified plants is mostly due to business reasons. Or the "Monsato" model.
Agreed, but I'm out of mod points, so I'll add my two cents.
Monsanto don't sell you seeds: they sell you a license to use the seeds you bought for that year; if you didn't use them all then you're SoL. Plus, if some seeds pass their genetic material to your own seeds, they'll want to destroy them.
It's a nice spin to this story, isn't it?
Re:Sounds like (Score:5, Interesting)
It's likely that they're trying to protect the genetic purity of their own crops.
When a GM crop is created, it's patented. Natural pollination will contaminate the genetic purity of the natural crop. Eventually, the local farmers won't be able to keep seed for their own crops because they'll all be contaminated by the GM grown nearby [guardian.co.uk]. This has happened time and time again. Local farmers are raided and shut down because their crops have been contaminated and they're now infringing on the IP of some bio-tech firm.
Additionally, GMO toxins have been detected in the blood of fetuses [dailymail.co.uk], potentially effecting development. The jury is still out on the safety of GMO foods. God has had millions of years to work on this stuff, but we've been at it for only a few years and already a significant amount of commercially available food is GMO. What are the long term consequences? The bio-tech firms don't care what the consequences are...because they're making a buck.
So, for all those calling this "terrorism", you need to take your weenie hat off and man-up. I would liken a GM crop grown nearby to an uncontrolled wildfire. The local farmers who are protesting this are trying to protect their own crops.