Genetically Modified Trees

http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/genetically-modified-tree-ban-called-for.html


Genetically modified food is certainly a well known issue, but genetically modified trees? Not so much. But nevertheless they are being developed, and at the UN Convention of Biodiversity, in Hyderabad, India, a coalition of green groups is urging a global ban on them.

Worldwatch quotes Isis Alvarez of the Global Forest Coalition:

The forestry industry is developing GM trees for use in its industrial plantations, in order to achieve trees that can grow faster, have reduced lignin content for production of paper or agrofuels, are insect or fertilizer resistant, or can grow in colder temperatures. This research is aimed at increasing their own profits while exacerbating the already known and very serious impacts of large scale tree plantations on local communities and biodiversity.

Beyond any corporate concerns, the environmental concern being raised is that trees with less lignin would be actually more prone to pest attacks, rot more quickly, and alter soil structure, as well as carbon storage potential, releasing more greenhouse gases.

The ban being urged isn't heading off some future problem. Proposals for GM tree production have been put forward for bioenergy production in the southern US and the Pacific Northwest.

These things happen by those who put profit ahead of what is best for nature and the planet are calling the shots.

Carol wrote:These things happen by those who put profit ahead of what is best for nature and the planet are calling the shots.

There is another word for those people lol.

But yes the ignorant,naive,greedy and destructive forces behind all bad science and its manifestations seem to be having a little too much of their way. With a gradual shift in awareness and as the younger ecologically savvy generation come through, hopefully that will change in the future.

They have certainly lost the plot and are behind the curb. Here in the uk we have paper and fuel made of FREE waste

http://www.wealthywaste.com/category/success-stories

http://www.coedcae.co.uk/garden-waste-fuel.html

We also have companies producing paper from poo http://www.elliepoopaper.co.uk/paper?gclid=CJqBmpbRl7MCFcrItAodOCoA5Q

We do not need to kill trees anymore. It is not cost effective to grow them either, let alone to pay for GMO trees

Silly people, always behind the trend. The time for GMO is over

OK it might not be over in the US but the rest of the world is having none of it

A silent forest

The Growing Threat Genetically Engineered Trees -
Award winning documentary film explores the growing global threat of genetically engineered trees to our environment and to human health. The film features renowned geneticist and host of PBS' The Nature of Things David Suzuki, who explores the unknown and possibly disastrous consequences of improperly tested GE methods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w437uQf_A7c


Love from me
mudra

You wil not be surprised that ArborGen are related to Monsanto. The Devils that gave us agent orange etc.

ArborGen (sounds like something out of a sci fi movie doesnt it) are behind GMO trees.

http://www.naturalnews.com/035699_Monsanto_GMO_trees.html

Not satisfied to own or control our food crops, Monsanto and its spinoff ArborGen have also set their sights on genetically modified trees and grasses. Despite a groundswell of objections by scientists and activists, the USDA has turned a deaf ear to their concerns and has instead aided and abetted Monsanto's plans.

(aka kowtowing to the corporate fascists and related morons who say global warming etc is not happening) F.

Coming soon to a forest or landscape near you: Franken trees and Franken grasses
In recent years, Monsanto and ArborGen have been developing GM trees including trees modified to withstand Monsanto's Roundup, trees designed with a reduced lignin content to appeal to paper making and construction industries (lignin gives trees their strength and rigidity) and "terminator trees" which don't produce seeds. In Hawaii, there has already been a contamination issue with GM papaya - the world's first commercially planted genetically engineered tree.

One of the GM trees currently being readied planting is GM Eucalyptus, despite numerous unresolved and unstudied concerns such as:

*Cryptococcus neoformans gattii, a yeast pathogen hosted by a variety of Eucalyptus species. It causes systemic fungal infections in humans, leading to fungal meningitis and death.

*Cold tolerance C-Repeat Binding Factor (CBF) genes such as those found in transgenic Eucalyptus trees that have been associated with stunted growth and production in potatoes. CBF gene modification produces highly pleiotropic effects but there does not appear to have been any investigation on the production of unintended metabolites, proteins, or nuclei acids in the modified trees.

*Transgenes, such as the ones involved in the Agrobacterium vector used in creating the transgenic trees, which can enlarge their host range to infect other species and exchange genes with them through hormones produced at the site of plant wounds.

*As reported by MSNBC and PLoS Pathogens, a new strain of a deadly fungus, Cryptococcus gattii, that has been causing fatal human illnesses throughout the Pacific Northwest. The fungus, which is known to grow on eucalyptus trees, has killed 40 out of 220 people infected throughout the region. The reduced lignin in GM eucalyptus has raised concerns that the trees could be more susceptible to infection.

*Pollen from GM Eucalyptus trees can travel almost twice as far as the ArboGen application stated. Pollen from other GM trees can travel for over 40 kilometers.

One way Monsanto has used to escape scrutiny of their GM Eucalyptus is by declaring most, if not all of the genetically modified components to be 'Confidential Business information' (CBI). The CBI designation prevents independent evaluation of the full impact of GM eucalyptus on the environment and on human and animal health.

The USDA recently handed Monsanto and their client lawn seed company Scotts a huge victory by deciding to not regulate Roundup Ready Scotts Kentucky Bluegrass. The USDA had previously echoed warnings by the Center for Technology Assessment that GM bluegrass could become an "environmental nightmare".

Grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass have light and easily dispersed pollen. Thus, the likelihood of polluting existing strains is virtually certain as has happened in Oregon where Roundup Ready bentgrass has become a scourge.

So, get ready for even more toxic poisons in the coming plague of glyphosate-resistant plants gone wild. Also expect Monsanto to demand that payment for infringing on their patents, as they have with farmers whose crops have been adulterated by Monsanto's seed pollen.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035699_Monsanto_GMO_trees.html#ixzz2AGWCK7yd

You know all of this reminds me a bit of that movie Soylent Green where in a dystopian future people start eating processed food made from dead humans unbeknown to them.

Im certain Monsanto would be the first company to market and develop such unsavoury edibles, with US government grants of course courtesy of some bank somewhere.

Lets hope we ascend or change first before the world descends into such a parlous state of affairs.

Where there is a will there is a way.

This from the Global Forest Coalition RE Arborgen and GMO trees

Conference has passed but still a useful website.
If you are unable to be an activist for whatever there is a donate button


Campaign to Target Genetically Engineered Trees at Occupy Monsanto Conference

St. Louis, MO–The Campaign to Stop GE Trees http://nogetrees.org will participate in the Occupy Monsanto conference here on September 16-17 to sound the alarm about the dangers genetically engineered trees pose to communities, wildlife and forests. The campaign asserts that Monsanto is complicit in this emerging hazard.

Monsanto’s glyphosate-based RoundUp herbicide will be used to control weeds around trees that are genetically engineered to be “RoundUp Ready,” or resistant to that herbicide. Use of this trait in GMO crops led to a documented tripling in the use of the herbicide, resulting in widespread problems with RoundUp resistant weeds, which require applications of more toxic herbicides to eliminate them. [1]

Just as GMO seed giant Monsanto has flooded the global market with their patented GMO seeds, ArborGen, which specializes in genetically engineered tree seedlings, intends to do the same. [2] ArborGen is a joint project of International Paper, MeadWestvaco and New Zealand-based Rubicon and one of their original joint owners was Monsanto.

“It’s clear from researching ArborGen’s public relations messaging that they see themselves as the new Monsanto,” stated Will Bennnington, of Global Justice Ecology Project. “They plan to follow the ruthless Monsanto model and don’t care who gets hurt in the process,” he added.

The links between ArborGen and Monsanto run deep. Numerous current and former staff had long tenures at Monsanto before being employed by ArborGen. [3]

“If ArborGen floods the market with their dangerous and uncontrollable GE trees, these trees will inevitably and irreversibly escape into the environment,” explained Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator of the Campaign to Stop GE Trees. “Patent law has enabled Monsanto to infamously sue farmers for possessing their GMO seeds after these seeds contaminated farmers’ lands. Think what that could mean to National Forests, National Parks or even private landowners if ArborGen’s invasive GE trees were found on those lands,” she continued.

ArborGen currently has a request pending with the USDA to commercially sell hundreds of millions of their GE eucalyptus tree seedlings annually for planting across the US South, claiming they will be used for bioenergy production and climate change mitigation. [4] GE eucalyptus, however, are highly flammable and could lead to uncontrollable firestorms, which would release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Jim Hightower has referred to ArborGen’s GE eucalyptus trees as ‘living firecrackers’.”