GM rice for nutrient poor soils

[alan refail]

"A gene from wild Indian rice plants can significantly raise the yield of common varieties in nutrient-poor soils.

Scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (Irri) identified a gene that helps uptake of phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, and transferred it into commercial strains.

Their yield was about 60% above normal in phosphorus-poor soils, the team reports in the journal Nature."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19336653

It's difficult to find an objection to this successful type of cisgenic GM.

[Colin Miles]

You beat me to it Alan! What will Mr Melchett have to say I wonder?

[Johnboy]

HiColin,
You already know what he is going to say because he knows the "Dogmatists Hymn" off by heart by now because he has sung it so often.
JB.

[alan refail]

Rice and wheat which will grow without artificial fertilisers, potatoes which will grow blight-free without chemical fungicides - sounds like a recipe for organic agriculture.

I'll hazard a guess that in years to come (long after my time) there will be arguments between the growers and consumers of "conventional" versus "organic" GM foods.

[Colin Miles]

Surely there must be other crops that could benefit from this gene?

[Johnboy]

The original "golden Rice" was one of the first modification that got me interested in GM. The originator patented it so that it could not be patented by others and was free to the world. It was bred to try and introduce vitamin A into the lives of people who's diet is mainly rice and bugger all else. Lack of vitamin A causes drastic difficulties with the eyes and ultimately leads to total blindness.
They now have a rice that has, I believe, 32 times more vitamin A as the original and the originators wishes have been preserved and is on an open patent.
It is because of the dogmatic stance by the anti GM faction that this rice is not in general use. You could say that the anti faction are now responsible for many hundreds of people now being totally blind!
I believe that in original golden rice the genes responsible came from the daffodil amongst other things and that is where the golden bit comes in.
JB.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
Somewhere on this forum is written by me that I regard GM as the organics of the future and when the penny finally drops and as you say they will become dogmatic the other way.
There are so many more things that can be done by GM and relatively fast. They can produce things using cisgenic GM that conventional breeders could only dream of.
JB.

[Colin Miles]

Cisgenesis is the genetic modification of a recipient plant with a natural gene from a crossable—sexually compatible—plant.

It is really very difficult to see what the objections can be to this kind of GM work. Does the essentially the same thing as traditional breeding only much, much quicker and more accurately.

Perhaps this explains the lack of further comment with regard to this post?

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
According to Peter Melchett GM is outdated and a thing of the past!
It has never lived up to what it said it could do is another of his classic blunders.
When you consider that apart from being a trasher of crops, for which he deserved a term of imprisonment, he has spent a fortune of the Soil Associations money lobbying so that the trials for GM crops could not be carried out.
It is he and his fellow non-thinkers that say that organics can feed the world and it is only they who have the knowledge where all the rest of the people concerned in raising food for the teeming millions have all got it wrong the Government's Chief Scientist, The President of the NFU,
Syngenta, Monsanto, Government Ministers and the Conservative Party have all got their facts wrong.
When Melchett was at school I bet he got an 'E' for mathematics because strangely Organic Mathematics never seem to add up!
The strange thing to me is that The Chinese, with their billion population, seem to be going very well using GM and are increasing usage year on year.
Lets face it Colin if you continually stand in the way of science through sheer dogmatism then what sort of a person are you? Certainly not one to take note of.
Empty vessels make the most noise and that just about sums Melchett up. A big noise who wouldn't recognise the truth if it hit him in the eye!
I look forward to his retirement.
JB.

[alan refail]

Hi Johnboy

Re the above comments; here is a link to an article of December 2008. It is well worth reading, including the comments that follow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... g-gm-crops

[Colin Miles]

Hi Alan, 2008 is a bit old and I did rather glaze over whilst trying to read it and the comments were the usual polarised ones. I see that he has actually re-posted Nov 2010. Maybe it is time he repeated it.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
The comments certainly are somewhat revealing.
It appears that we are not alone.
JB.