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| Regular, old, ordinary geraniums |
REALLY?
Is THIS necessary?
(click the underlined link for the full article)
Scientists in Spain have genetically engineered geraniums that are long lived AND allergy free. They created a flower that has no pollen in order to help allergy sufferers. How did they do this? They genetically modified a bacterium so that it could INFECT a regular geranium causing it to not produce pollen and be unable to reproduce with other plants, thereby keeping people from sneezing at geraniums.
I think the most telling part of the article is the following comment by one of the researchers:
"These biotechnological approaches could be used in other ornamental or crop species," Cañas told LiveScience.
I love that fancy word "biotechnological". Like that makes it all sound good and safe. Great, just great. I don't understand this whole GMO movement. Well, OK, yeah, it's all about $$$ of course, but still...it's just science playing around with things it probably shouldn't be playing around with, in my humble opinion. Don't bees have enough PROBLEMS already without now encountering flowers without pollen?
What if they extended this to veggies? What if the bacterium somehow managed to "accidentally infect" fruit trees? I just don't see how this could possibly have a good ending in a few years. I think it's just all the more reason for each of us to have our own fruit trees and grow our own vegetable plants and to try and only use heirloom, non GMO, open pollinated varieties whenever possible.
I couldn't agree more. Wow. What a waste of millions of dollars in research. And like other GMOs it will likely have far-reaching complications as well.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? All that money to come up with this? The far reaching implications are crazy to even imagine.
DeleteI wonder if these GMO flowers will kill beess like GMO corn does? Now that would just be the ticket wouldn't it. Draw the poor bees into the flowers that will kill them. Good grief. :O(
ReplyDeleteI am totally on board with Heirloom seeds and staying away from GMO anything! The disastrous health effects for human not just bees is going to be high. :O(
Anything that uses the word "infect" as if it's just the most regular thing bothers me. I thought the same thing about bees, they are flying along, "oh flowers" and next thing you know, either they have no pollen to retrieve after going from flower to flower, or they pick up some genetically modified whatever and take it back to the hive. Ugh.
DeleteI'm planning my garden and Heirloom is what I'm trying to do. Certainly non hybrid and non GMO if possible.
What? People are allergic to geraniums? What they are doing is very scary. When they start messing with nature and the way things are supposed to be, watch out people. This is crazy.
ReplyDeleteHa, you and me both. I was going to mention that in my posting, it there really a big "geranium allergy" problem in the world? Ha. I'm thinking it's more that they wanted to prove they could do it and now they move on to 'other things'. Crazy indeed!
DeleteCalifornia' Prop 37 will require labeling of foods that are GMO or that contain GMO ingredients. Monsanto, Dupont, Sergento, Bayer and other agribusiness giants have already poured over $25 Million into the anti-Prop 37 efforts while saying at the same time that GMOs are safe.
ReplyDeleteGMOs have been shown to be harmful, but it goes way beyond this. Left unfettered, Monsanto et al will eventually control the food supply as they already do in formerly colonized countries in Africa and South America where subsistance farmers have for centuries fed their families and communities. In these places these farmers have been forced, as a part of "structural economic adjustments" imposed by the World Bank, to now only grow GMO export crops in monocultural processes where Monsanto at al own the seeds, the patents on the seeds which are manipulated to live through repeted sprayings of Round Up weed killer, which is also owned by Monsanto.
Monsanto's strategy is to control as much o the food supply which will make us terribly vulnerable as these third world countries. Monoculture eventually causes among numerous other terrible consequences, severe loss of topsoil, soil depletion, crop failure and eventually, famine.
If you care about this issue please google Prop 37 to learn more and support this labeling law. Hopefully after this is passed, more states will do the same.
Apologize for the soap box, but for us gardenrs it's personal. :)
LOVE your blog!
Well first of all, THANK YOU for your kind words and welcome to the blog!
DeleteI've only just started hearing stuff about that Proposition. I will definitely google it and come up with a blog posting about it I think that's a worthwhile cause. I've read a lot on Monsanto and it IS truly frightening how they are seemingly trying to become THE food supplier of the world. Very scary stuff.
Thank you for the information, I'm off to see the google, ha.
Please come back and visit!
I totally agree with you here. It's becoming an insane world! I'm planting my own small orchard this fall.
ReplyDeleteI've got a stash of fruit trees as well, I missed the planting season this Spring because time got away from me and then it just got TOO hot to plant anything. So I've babied them in town, watering daily, and I've heard that planting in the Fall is ok (and actually good for fruit trees). So that's my plan as soon as the cool weather arrives. Having your own orchard is a great idea! Keep us posted and check back here, I'll post about our orchard adventures are well, ha.
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