genetically-modified

We’ve warned you before that there may be funny bread in your future. While GM Starlink corn hasn’t made anyone sick, it has been a disaster for organic farmers and for countries like Mexico that count on indigenous corn varieties. Next up (after many delays: GM Wheat.

Genetically modified wheat hasn’t yet been introduced into the U.S. market. When that happens, public acceptance of the product may depend on what people know about it. Currently, they don’t know much, but when provided information about opposition to GM products, respondents say they are likely to refrain from buying them. Despite this, researcher Sean Fox says, “GM wheat has been on hold for a few years, but I think it’s eventually going to be a reality.”
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Global warming, the threat of nuclear war, genetically-modified crops and industrial farming all threaten the future of food. Our salvation may lie in a “doomsday vault,” buried deep in a mountain on an island next to the North Pole.

This vault holds about 2 million seeds, and almost all the varieties of the world?s crops are represented. In New Scientist, Fred Pearce quotes the directory of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Cary Fowler, as saying, “If the worst came to the worst, this would allow the world to reconstruct agriculture on this planet.”
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Genetically modified plants grown from terminator seedspollinate just like other plants, but the seeds aren’tfertile. The danger is that the terminator gene will spreadto healthy plants, until all plants in a given species ceaseto reproduce. Monsanto claims this can’t happen?but theyalso claimed that seeds from their GM plants would notcontaminate nearby fields of organic crops, and this hashappened all over the world. Now confidential documentleaked from within the United Nations reveals that at ameeting in Bangkok on February 7-11, theCanadian government agreed to attempt to overturn aninternational moratorium on Terminator seeds, despite thefact that they are plaguing Canadian farmers.
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You’ve noticed that tiny stickers that now appear on almost all fruit, and probably been annoyed that you have to peel each one off. These contain bar codes for the check-out clerk, but they also contain a secret the store might not want you to know.
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