Monsanto and ­ScottsMiracle-Gro Want GM Grass in Your Yard

[populistdriven]

Turf Warrior

~snip~

By 2001, ScottsMiracle-Gro and Monsanto had succeeded in ­creating Roundup-ready bentgrass, and in 2002 they applied to the Department of Agriculture (which regulates trans­genic crops) for a permit to sell the stuff. The companies are still waiting for that approval - but they do have a permit to grow the grass. So in 2003, ­ScottsMiracle-Gro contractors planted transgenic bentgrass on 400 acres of high-desert farmland in Jefferson County, Oregon. At this point, the two companies had spent tens of millions of dollars on the project. The goal, says a ScottsMiracle-Gro spokesperson, was to produce a good supply of seed and have it ready to sell "the day they got approval."

~snip~

When they find transgenic grass, the field scientists share its GPS coordinates with academic researchers and ScottsMiracle-Gro staff, and mark their map. Under a 2004 USDA mandate, ScottsMiracle-Gro must work to remove all known GM grass that has spread outside, or cross-pollinated with something outside, the original control area.

And spread it has: The pollen ranged up to 13 miles, perhaps farther. Despite efforts to prevent contamination - the company used tractors dedicated to the transgenic fields, stored and transported seed in closed containers, and employed other protection measures - transgenic grass migrated well beyond the boundary of the control area. Scientists, regulators, and farmers knew it would spread; grass, after all, is a wind-pollinated perennial. A few overlooked plants here and there are all it would take. "Any time you let something go to seed," Butler says, "you'll see a million where once there was one."

What was surprising, says Neil Hoffman, a risk analyst with USDA's Biotechnology Regulatory Services, was that the grass and CP4 gene traveled so far. The migration was driven by two ­factors. First, a heavy summer wind kicked up, depositing seeds onto neighboring farms and into patches of no-man's-land like drainage ditches. Second, the grass cross-pollinated with other species - red top, for instance - passing on the trait of ­glyphosate resistance. This kind of hybridization is what environmentalists most fear: Plants with a new, survival-boosting trait gain a competitive advantage that will launch them on a global ­ecological conquest, potentially disrupting whole ecosystems.

~snip~

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/turf.html

[AGKISTRODON]

1. NOXIOUS WEEDS

Everything that grows in my yard is on the hit list kept by golf course landscapers. I like it that way, lawns are boring.B-)
All my stuff is native, needs no fertilizer and little water. I have some of the coolest wildflowers to be found, blackberry patches, wild roses, and wild grapes.
Why the hell do people have to tame everything?

[populistdriven]

2. its the american dream

Didn't you see the ads on TV? If your lawn isn't perfect your marriage is in trouble!

[blue northern]

3. From the folks who brought you Agent Orange

A friend of mine runs a garden center.
According to him Monsanto's Round-up is an almost exact duplicate chemically of Monsanto's imfamous Agent Orange.
I'll pass on the Agent Orange lite and the franken-grass that it can't kill.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Me, too

I won't touch Miracle-Gro, either. I'd rather have my garden veggies a little smaller, but all natural and organic. I know what I'm eating.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Is everyone ready?

the next 100 years will determine the survival of 95% of life on this earth as we now now it. Plants, animals, will all change or die off. including us.

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I've watched some really scary National Geo shows

the past week or so regarding just this scenario. If it's not the Yellowstone super-volcano that gets us, it'll be the mini-ice age brought about by the slowed-down warm ocean currents. (Melting glaciers feeding too much fresh water into the ocean.) Mother Earth will get a chance to start all over again with this life experiment, as she has so many times before.

[BonnieJW]

7. Please explain to this ignorant one

I was under the impression that everything is getting warmer. How does that turn into a mini ice age? Sounds interesting.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. The way it was explained

is that the currents in the Atlantic Ocean run like a conveyor belt. The warm water at the surface is transported to the poles where it is cooled and sinks to the bottom of the ocean and moves back towards the equator where it is rewarmed. With global warming, as more and more glaciers melt, they dump more and more fresh water into the ocean which slows down the conveyor belt. Fresh water apparently stays on top and doesn't sink to the bottom like salt water so it slows everything down. As the warm currents become more and more sluggish, the climate becomes more and more chilly. The theory was that the north Atlantic states and northern Europe could ultimately (and soon) have an average temperature drop of 10 degrees or more which would be disastrous for crops and so on. The show I watched (and it might have been on the Science Channel, not NGeo, I can't remember) interviewed paleoclimatologists who analyzed ice cores two miles long which showed that throughout earth's history, every period of global warming was followed by severe chilling, and that the change occurred suddenly, not gradually as was previously thought. The scientists have been analyzing the salinity and temperatures of the Atlantic in particular, and they fear that a tipping point is definitely being reached. ... Whereas a large volcanic eruption would most likely disrupt the climate for a year or so (as apparently happened in 1816, the year with no summer), these ocean current disruptions cause a little ice age more like 1,000 years.


ed. More on this. Here's a good link.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0130-11.htm