Kitchen Garden Forum

NB,
I would suggest that a little knowledge is extremely dangerous!
Once again you are making pronouncements on a subject that you have but scant and very incorrect knowledge of.
Again you spout alternative rubbish without checking up with what is said in science and whether there is at least a modicum of truth what you are writing. You read something on line and because it falls into what your own thoughts are it must be gospel truth. Stop being so naive!
In my eyes you do yourself no credit!
JB.

Ok then Johnboy,
Enlighten us with your wisdom, on this subject of course, pretty please?

Tel,
I do not propose to start a GM battle all over again but what has been written has been gathered from more than dubious sources and I would suggest that the person who has written it has been quoting all manner of dubious websites to prove her points over the past months.
I suggest that if you want an explanation of GM you ask her.
JB.

I don't visit this site very often but I do enjoy learning.
I have no past knowledge of 'NB' so can't comment. My previous post was directed at you. Over the 5yrs. I have been a 'member', I see posts by 'Johnboy' that are sometimes abrasive or contradictory.
I've been a plot holder for as many years as yourself, no doubt.
If you disagree with what I've said, please PM me . I'm always receptive to constructive comment.

Nature's Babe wrote:With you on this Gallotments. In India they tried a lot of genetically modified crops, many farmers ended up broke and owing Monsanto, who are in business to make a profit ; a lot of farmers committed suicide. Now surviving farmers are following Fukoakas methods. A lot can be done with natural selection and varieties with the cold gene already exist in the cold places. Messing around with the genetics can also alter the nutritional content.
Nature sometimes crosses things I grew some green, giant sugarsnap peas and there were two vines of purple podded sugarsnaps, I saved the seed and had mostly purple podded this year with just a few green podded, this way I might end up wioth a purple variety if I keep selecting the purple.

Let's get some reason into this, please.

1- Farmers throughout the world commit suicide, usually for reasons of debt. As it happens Welsh farmers are more likely to do so that those in other parts of the UK.

http://cebmh.warne.ox.ac.uk/csr/resfarmers.html

2- The crops involved in India were, I understand, GM cotton from Monsanto, so it seems likely that some of the suicides were due to debt to Monsanto. However, India has a very high suicide rate among the population in general.

http://www.maithrikochi.org/india_suici ... istics.htm

3- The sort of "argument" you adduce for opposing genetic research, which is, after all, what the potato trials in question are about, on the grounds that transgenic GOs have caused problems, is but little removed from the cries of "Frankenfood" and eco-warrior crop-trashing whenever the G word occurs. The only genes involved in the research are potato genes.

4- I'm not sure what you mean by the assertion: "A lot can be done with natural selection". If you mean it in the Darwinian sense, then I assume what you are saying is if you wait long enough plants will develop into something useful to humanity. They won't, because natural selection doesn't operate like that. All crops we use have been developed by human intervention - un-natural selection. If by the statement you mean that "traditional" plant-breeding is "natural" and "scientific" plant-breeding is "un-natural", then you are misusing language.