Anti-GM wheat protest halted by police

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18224637

Anti-GM wheat protest halted by police

Anti-GM protesters who had planned to "decontaminate" a field of modified wheat in Hertfordshire have been stopped from entering by a police line.

The Take the Flour Back group said it failed because the crop in Harpenden, created to deter aphids - a wheat pest - was "hidden behind a fortress".

An order banning protesters from entering the site was issued on Friday.

They say crops could contaminate the surrounding area. Site owner Rothamsted Research says that is highly unlikely.

Police say that two men, who were arrested for trespassing in the banned area, are being questioned at a Hertfordshire police station.

The protesters had planned to rip up the crops.

"In the past, kids, grannies, and everyone in between has decontaminated GM trial sites together," Take the Flour Back's Kate Bell said.

"Here at the beginning of a new resistance to this obsolete technology, we see GM hidden behind a fortress.

(Continued, captain ludd defeated again?)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Have they tried making a GM wheat doll and sticking pins in it?

[Blind groper]

Sadly, the luddites are too often successful.
Golden rice, which has the potential to save millions of lives, more than 10 years after its creation, still cannot be used where it is needed, due to the zealous opposition of luddites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice

[Thumpalumpacus]

Clearly, technology is the new black magic.

[Rum]

There are issues other than fear of so called Frankenstein technology. The main one for me is the potential for large corporations to monopolise certain brands of crop which can only be grown from purchased seed and to gain an even bigger stranglehold over the food chain.

[Blind groper]

Rum

That is also true for standard seed. For the last 40 odd years, farmers have been buying genetically superior seed from specialty seed companies, rather than relying on seed they have gathered themselves. They do that because they make more money doing that.

It is just another version of the general principle that it is better to use the services and products of those who are genuinely expert in their field. It has nothing to do with seed being GM. It is just that a specialty seed company makes better seed.

Unless you want to go back to a less efficient system of agriculture, which would contribute to poverty, this way of doing things is here to stay.

[Atheist-Lite]

With new technology and bio-tech graduates without work there must be room for 'backbedroom bio-hackers' to make it rather than be frozen out by overlarge companies and their lawyers? I believe in breaking apart things that have grown too big and are cornering any area of human endevour. So I'm half with Rum but against the superstitious side on this. I think terminator crops are a important way of safe guarding patents on bio-technology for large or for small, and if some ineffecient Indian farmers prefer to top themselves because they can't compete - they are responsible for their own bad choices.

[Blind groper]

Crumple

That may well happen. New technologies are making it likely that there will be 'backroom GM' in the near future.

it will be interesting to see if the law and the police can keep up with this new trend.

[Tero]

Sadly, the luddites are too often successful.
Golden rice, which has the potential to save millions of lives, more than 10 years after its creation, still cannot be used where it is needed, due to the zealous opposition of luddites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice

Much of the world has become too dependent on rice. And you really should not rely on such few crops to feed the world.

Other groups have argued a varied diet containing foods rich in beta carotene such as sweet potato, leafy green vegetables and fruit would provide children with sufficient vitamin A.

wiki

[Svartalf]

Sadly, the luddites are too often successful.
Golden rice, which has the potential to save millions of lives, more than 10 years after its creation, still cannot be used where it is needed, due to the zealous opposition of luddites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice

luddite, my foot... those GM crops go with excessive use of chemicals that are toxic to much more fauna than just the pests they are supposed to keep away (many crops are bred for one trait : pesticide tolerance)
To boot, they are generally supposed to be sterile, but aren't quite so, which means the genome can spread to areas where it is not desired, and of course there's the problem with monsanto trying to extract royalties from farmers who want to keep seeds from one year to the next, if those seeds have their 'proprietary' GM thing, even when it has arrived there by contamination rather than on purpose.

[Svartalf]

Rum

That is also true for standard seed. For the last 40 odd years, farmers have been buying genetically superior seed from specialty seed companies, rather than relying on seed they have gathered themselves. They do that because they make more money doing that.

It is just another version of the general principle that it is better to use the services and products of those who are genuinely expert in their field. It has nothing to do with seed being GM. It is just that a specialty seed company makes better seed.

Unless you want to go back to a less efficient system of agriculture, which would contribute to poverty, this way of doing things is here to stay.

Except that the seed sellers could not try to charge you for keeping seeds from your crop to plant the next when it was just selected seed, as they are trying to do for GM stuff

[Blind groper]

Svartalf

You are making a legal argument. Saying certain laws, like banning the retention of GM seeds, are wrong. You may be correct. But this is a different issue. Want to change the law? Lobby for a change.

Whether the laws are right or wrong has nothing to do whether GM is good or bad, and you should not confuse the issues.

[Svartalf]

I also made an ecological argument in the post above...
As to changing the laws, easier said than done, especially with pockets and influence networks as deep as monsanto's on the other side.

[Blind groper]

those GM crops go with excessive use of chemicals that are toxic to much more fauna than just the pests they are supposed to keep away (many crops are bred for one trait : pesticide tolerance)

The primary pesticide resistance in GM crops is glyphosate resistance. This permits no till agriculture, which is far more ecologically friendly than the alternative. It uses glyphosate which is a herbicide that is toxic to weeds, but pretty much harmless to soil animals, fish, birds, people etc. If it encourages a little more herbicide use, it does no harm to the ecology. in fact, by encouraging glyphosate as the herbicide, instead of nastier herbicides like atrazine, it is helping the ecology.

Another large range of GM crops are those that express the bacterial toxin Bt. This is toxic to insects, and those GM, insect resistant plants need less insecticide spray. So they reduce the impact of toxic chemical on the environment.

Frankly, Svartalf, that argument does not wash.

[Svartalf]

Funny... That's not what wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_%28herbicide%29 ) says about it... maybe the actual glyphosate article is even more damning.