BBKA Pesticde Decision

[gavin]

Perhaps we need a more organised way of countering the single-issue nutters. I don't know what, it is just that they have the media at their beck and call, it seems, and maybe it is time that beekeepers stood up to be counted.

[Jon]

It's the old problem of dumbing down.
People are happier with simple answers to complex problems even if the simple solutions are quite incorrect.
There is a real anti intellectual climate in some places.
A lot of Americans (not all thankfully) are happier with a George Bush or a Sara Palin rather than a cerebral Obama as intelligence is viewed by many with deep suspicion.

Not long to Groundhog day now which must be the most important date in the cut and paster's calendar.

[Neils]

A copy and paste "Dear MP, I urge you not to support EDM 1267 because...." (it's all a load of b****s dressed up as science playing on the legitimate concern and good intentions of the public who'll stick their name to anything if it's worded right.

[edit]Bugger, mine's already signed it.

[Eric McArthur]

Jon wrote;
One of the key points in that independent article was moving GM from private ie the likes of Monsanto, to primarily public ownership.
The agribusiness stranglehold is one of the main problems I have with GM.
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Hi Jon
Do I see a glimmer of consensus here Jon? I posed that point some time back – a start!
The suspension of all further commercial GM crop plantings, should cease forthwith.
The seed distribution infrastructure must be reinstated and removed from the anti trust monopoly which Monsanto et al are striving to achieve.
Seed segregation should be rigorously monitored to filter out GM contamination.
All food crops should be grown for food not bio diesel.
Work on GM crops must be conducted under controlled secure, conditions under glass!

Having listened to the Beddington interview on Radio 4 recently, where it was conceded that
even with a burgeoning world population of 9 billion the planet could still feed this population, which it was estimated would peak at this figure – his not mine!
The main problem with food supply at this present time, according to expert, current thinking is lack of the infrastructure necessary to facilitate access, planting, harvesting and distribution. Much of the food that is grown in the highly productive regions of Africa rots in the field due to transport problems.
Beddington is an expert in his field. His statement about the potential for conventional crops to feed the world, begs the question of why we need this at present quite crude GM technology, which by its very nature takes agriculture down the path of mono culture when we still have a vast diverse range of conventional, proven food plants which are already in great peril of gross contamination by the massive, headlong rush into a food production system which is more dependent on pesticides than conventional crops due to the false prophets who are preaching that crop rotation is an outmoded system, a system which has stood the test of time over the centuries.
GM may have a place in the supply of our daily bread at some time in the future, but to squander a precious resource needlessly at the behest of a minority of powerful avaricious individuals for profit is sheer stupidity. Hans Christian Anderson epitomised the present situation beautifully in the tale of “The King’s Magic Suit”.

The results of GM research, if successful in establishing suitable crops which do not require any pesticides to thrive, must be stored as in present day seed bank facilities – in reserve for the time when they can used as a fall back measure.

Using the analogy of a ship at sea – it would be crass stupid to throw all the lifebelts into a calm sea and then cast the lifeboats adrift as well! When they are there as a fall back in the event of an emergency!

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Grizzly

UK Politics

GM food banned from Commons

The government still issues licences for genetically modified crop tests

Genetically-modified food has been banned from restaurants and bars in the House of Commons.

Full-time catering managers have decided to avoid using genetically-modified (GM) food - developed from crops given genes from other species - until more is known about the long-term effects.

Eric

[Jon]

Hi Eric.
I have always been wary of GM - more to do with the politics than the technology itself.
If it is pushed too hard we lose heirloom species and it impacts on agricultural systems such as sharecropping, although preserving crop species diversity was well flagged up in that document Gavin linked to yesterday.
The interspecies transfer of genetic material does not worry me so much as long as there is strict regulation.
It happens all the time in nature if you care to read up on what viruses get up to.
There is even speculation that bits of virus from bee pathogens such as IAPV have ended up in the bee genome.

In basic cell structure it is reckoned that the mitochondria used to be a separate organism which became integrated into the cell.

[lindsay s]

Here's another link. In the meantime I will keep sitting on the fence.
http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/ru...zword/3938141/

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Jon
There is seemingly a narrowing gap of difference between us Jon. Relative to preserving crop and genetic diversity.
Eric

Jon wrote:
The interspecies transfer of genetic material does not worry me so much as long as there is strict regulation.
It happens all the time in nature if you care to read up on what viruses get up to.
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Yes, if we go back far enough in time all species are subject to integration of separate organisms. The termites are a clasic example of this evolutionary process, in which however over cosmic time the lethal combinations were eliminated by Natural Selection. What Monsanto et al are about is firing exotic genes from fish, fowl, even human sources into organisms (plants in this case - instant evolution!) which would not carry them in Nature - except, to concede your point, over vast time scales!
Eric

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Lindsay
Keep sitting on the fence lass, you are doing a grand job! That was a breathe of fresh air!

rRic

[gavin]

You may be having gender issues again there Eric.

Sitting on the fence when heated technological stuff is flying about is fine by me too!

The piece you quoted Lindsay was just opinion though. The argument has been about the real position of science, as opinion may be fine for pubs and living rooms but when aggressive media and political campaigns are being mounted by people with plenty of opinion but little science to back them up ... then people who know the science and see things differently should not be keeping quiet.