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NJ Jaeger

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Environmental impact studies show that Genetically Engineered Alfalfa likely to contaminate natural alfalfa

“Despite a court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement requirement, WHICH FOUND THE LIKELIHOOD OF CONTAMINATION OF OUR FIELDS, the USDA has deregulated genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa.

Following 2005-2007, the alfalfa seed production firms of Dairyland and Cal/West seeds reported a number of instances where GT (glyphosate-tolerant) transgene presence was detected in non-GT alfalfa seed production fields in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and California. In 2006, Dairyland farmers reported 11 of 16 fields contained detectable levels of GT transgene; 9 fields in Montana and single fields in each Wyoming and Idaho.

Last year, Cal/West found the GM crop in 12 percent of 200 fields where it planted non-GM alfalfa seed.

As farmers of the nation’s #1 high-nutrition forage crop for livestock, we have known for generations what makes the American farm economy run― and it’s not genetic experimentation by seed patent companies.

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Topics: Environmental degradation GMOs activism agriculture farming food global health health sustainability trade
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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Mar 23 2011: You'r going to love Root Wolfe's brand new talk on Genetic engineering and ethics!
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    joshua bigley

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    Feb 25 2011: Gm food is an abomination! For the reasons above and below. If an organic farmer is minding his own business and Gm genes contaminate his crop and citizen food supply, the innocent organic farmer farming in a sustainable healthy humane way is criminalized, and may potentially lose his crop to Frankenstein pollution and by court order.

    I think GM is a plot to control the world's food supply. And it is criminal and corrupt. People should be in the streets like Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio over GM foods.
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    Harald Jezek 50+

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    Feb 24 2011: I think, GMOs are really a result of a chain reaction. Instead of integrating crop production into existing ecosystems, we try to force nature to do it our way. Not only that, but we also expect ever high returns as cheap as possible.
    This lead us to industrialized monoculture plantations with all its related problems (sensitive to pests, soil exhaustion, etc). Now we are trying to "solve" the problem with heavy fertilizing, pesticide and herbicide applications. Unfortunately, bugs are starting to become immune against common pesticides and the same is true for weeds, becoming herbicide resistant.
    Apparently, the answer to the problem is, GMOs. Although I'm not in general against GMOs, I question whether they are the right solution to the problem.
    1) the industry tells us very little about the long term impact of GMOs on the environment (I suspect, that's because not even they know it).
    2) the GMO technology is in the hands of too few companies, hence, no healthy competition is going on.
    3) One also should be suspicious if one company produces herbicides and insecticides and then sell GMOs resistant to their own products. Farmers run the risk to become completely dependent on the chemical/GMO package, somebody like Monsanto sells them.
    4) last but not least, we should rethink, whether they current way of farming is actually the best possible.
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