Evoking questions coming out on such a controversial subject.. The trouble is, there is no fool proof 100% guarantee that a sterile crop will not have one or two mutated or reverted fertile plants... We see this commonly with some bulbs in a similar context, for example Zepranthres Grandiflilora. So I think there will always be some risks with GM seed crops. As we have already seen on documentaries where GM corn has aledagely, accidentally & unexpectedly pollinated non GM crops, it would be devastating if cross pollination progresses to native corn in somewhere like South America.. Or barley type grasses world wide... Another question that I ask my self is, what are the potential dangers of GM seed that is designed to be glyphosate resistant, having such genes that it may mutate to quickly become resistant to other chemical controll poisons.. ??? Perhaps seeds from these plants will then out compete everything in areas that are regularly sprayed like road edges & could spread across vast areas quite easily.. Steven : ) On 07/03/2013, at 8:51 AM, David Ehrlich <idavide@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I have seen a great deal of emotion and spleen vented on both sides of the GM > issue. My question is: if GM vegetables require less insecticide; can produce > equal nutrition at lower cost, why are they a bad thing? I can understand that > if the GM variety crosses with a wild plant, the altered gene(s) can escape into > the wild. That raises two questions: if the GM plant were sterile, what would > be wrong with it? And if an altered gene were to escape, would that necessarily > be a bad thing – evolution is constantly altering, sequestering and > incorporating new genetic material in species’ gene pools. > David E > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/