TED Community » william olkowski

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Climate change, urban food production, small scale composting,

An idea worth spreading

Changing the Toxics Substances Control Act.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.70 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 6 2013: Glad you checked him out now check out what he wrote - Genetic Roulette. regards, bill

• A reply on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 5 2013: Peter, all arguments start with assumptions. Good scientists start with assumptions, then test, evaluate evidence (which you have not done adequately), then make conclusions, then speculations. I am not in a pissing contest with you but these short bits back and forth are not the best way to converse. The Corcord controversy was one time I remember when technology was challenged. DDT also comes to mind. That's my field, being an entomologist. I would not bother to converse if I thought you did not care about what you teach. But I would be better inclined if you would get the book by J, Smith, and then come up with a response to specific studies. Kind regard, bill olkowski 805-636-1789.

• A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 5 2013: Supersonic transport refers to a technology that threatened the atmosphere and was not applied. Do a google to check on its history. Every new technology must be proven safe before application. Testing now with GMO crops shows bad effects. For one, pollens produced by GMO corn and soybeans now resides in weeds that require greater herbicide applications. Even if the genie is out of the bottle it is not useful to assume its safe because its now free to contaminate the biosphere.

• A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 5 2013: Peter, check your assumptions. All good scientists do that.
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  A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 5 2013: Peter, iSince you teach you must see the critical information in the book Genetic Roulette.

• A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 5 2013: No commentors so far have provided anything usefull to refute my contention. Ted people: have Jeff Smith give a talk instead of just tecnocrates in favor of GEs.

• A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 4 2013: I ;shared your belief until I understood the problems with GMO plants Monsanto pushed thru the USDA and FDA. DNA hit by shotgunned genes, even viral vectored genes is not precise. You may think testing could be used before release but that was not the case with GMO glyphosate corn, and other modified plants. Natural gene splicing is not the same as mechanical gene splicing. Check out J. Smith's book on Genetic Roulette. See review on my blog: entomological philosopher. Until then check on you assumptions.

• A comment on Conversation: Forget this GE engineering as we need to learn more before using this technology so widely. Consider the Monsanto efforts with GMO crops.

  Feb 4 2013: So called mutagenesis around WW2 cannot be equated with gene splicing, when species barriers are crossed, especially across families and kingdoms. Gene splicing is not precise. Shooting genes into cells is like a shot gun blast, with gene substitutions and impacts all over the genome. See Jeffrey Smiths book Genetic Roulette.

• A comment on Talk: Hadyn Parry: Re-engineering mosquitos to fight disease

  Feb 3 2013: Jonnie, you are not reading my note. I am suggesting that releasing genetically modified organisms is not entirely without risks. Yet you have not commented on what I said. Its not the sterile mosquitoes I am warning about but those which the author has not proven to be sterile. read my blog: entomological philosopher.
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  A comment on Talk: Hadyn Parry: Re-engineering mosquitos to fight disease

  Jan 31 2013: You will notice that there was no evaluation on mutations also being released. Mutations are mostly, but not entirely, deadly. Its the very small group of mutations derived from GE that worry me. Insects, are biochemically superior to us, having been on the planet vastly longer than vertebrates. Its not a matter of why we should control mosquitoes, but a matter of knowing more about the technology aimed at them that is always the situation. History tells us a long sad story about how we learn about insect control, DDT, chlorinated hydrocarbons, then their substitutes and now GMOs. Mark my words, it will fall into the same pattern, but now we are introducing genetic changes that can spread through the biosphere.