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Scotland's rural affairs secretary has said that the country will ban the growing of genetically modified crops and opt out of allowing EU-approved GMOs such as MON 810 (corn with an added Bacillus thuringiensis gene):
Richard Lochhead said the Scottish government was not prepared to "gamble" with the future of the country's £14bn food and drink sector. He is to request that Scotland be excluded from any European consents for the cultivation of GM crops. But farming leaders said they were disappointed by the move. Under EU rules, GM crops must be formally authorised before they can be cultivated. An amendment came into force earlier this year which allows member states and devolved administrations to restrict or ban the cultivation of genetically modified organisms within their territory.
[...] Mr Lochhead added: "There is no evidence of significant demand for GM products by Scottish consumers and I am concerned that allowing GM crops to be grown in Scotland would damage our clean and green brand, thereby gambling with the future of our £14bn food and drink sector. Scottish food and drink is valued at home and abroad for its natural, high quality which often attracts a premium price, and I have heard directly from food and drink producers in other countries that are ditching GM because of a consumer backlash."
[...] The move has also been broadly welcomed by environment groups. But Scott Walker, chief executive of farming union NFU Scotland, said he was disappointed that the Scottish government had decided that no GM crops should ever be grown in Scotland. "Other countries are embracing biotechnology where appropriate and we should be open to doing the same here in Scotland," he said. "These crops could have a role in shaping sustainable agriculture at some point and at the same time protecting the environment which we all cherish in Scotland." Huw Jones, professor of molecular genetics at agricultural science group Rothamsted Research, said the announcement was a "sad day for science and a sad day for Scotland. He said that GM crops approved by the EU were "safe for humans, animals and the environment".
The European Parliament voted to give member states the ability to opt-out of allowing the cultivation of EU-approved GMOs in January.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Tuesday August 11 2015, @01:16AM
The only way that sentence could be true is if Evolution is false. But Evolution isn't false, which means that your understanding of biology, especially evolutionary genetics, is very far off the mark. May I suggest? Jerry Coyne wrote a superlative popular introduction to the topic. [amazon.com]
Those things all go worng all the time without any direct human intervention in the various species's genes, and the most spectacular and infamous instances weren't even tangentially related to agribusiness. Hell, for that matter, humans are the only invasive species that really present a serious danger to other species, and we're the most invasive species in the history of life on earth since the cyanobacteria.
No, I don't trust Monsanto to get this technology right -- but neither do I trust them to get less sophisticated technology right. That's right there in my original post, where I pointed out that overuse of glyphosate is the real problem, and RoundUp-Ready crops simply exacerbate the glyphosate excesses.
But, you know what?
I'm not going all hyperbolic with respect to all organic chemistry, even though organic chemistry is to glyphosate what genetic modification is to RoundUp-Ready crops.
TL/DR: the problem isn't the tool. It's with the fuckwits misusing the tool. Same as with anything else, really....
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @03:23AM
> May I suggest? Jerry Coyne wrote a superlative popular introduction to the topic.
You can suggest it. But after reading that 'rebuttal' I'm more inclined to believe mbo42 since the only proof you offered up that he was wrong was circular reasoning capped with a self-important reference to something nobody is going to pay attention to.
> TL/DR: the problem isn't the tool. It's with the fuckwits misusing the tool. Same as with anything else, really....
That is a vast oversimplification. Some tools make it much easier to fuck up than others. Like an AR-15 versus a steak-knife.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday August 11 2015, @06:25PM
When TrumpetPower humps, he gets in there and modifies those genes himself, LIKE A MAN.