In a message dated 01/11/2008 03:33:51 GMT Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

most  people in the world are fed by farmers  
who save seed for next years  crop.  Try saving GMO seed and watch the  
corporate lawyers  descend.  


A message was circulated some weeks ago, I think from the BBKA, that HRH's  
office was totally overwhelmed with all the donated honey and they had no easy  
way of passing it on to the needy and so people were asked to send no  more.  
He has bees of his own anyway!
 
I know far too little about GMOs to comment sensibly on whether or not they  
will save the World; however, there is much concern that patent laws are being 
 applied to living organisms, or parts of them, that have been used as food 
or  medicine by indigenous people for generations and this is reportedly being  
made illegal.  Also, as Bob will know in Canada, Monsanto has pursued in  the 
Courts farmers who have been the unwitting and unwilling recipients of GM  
pollen which contaminated their own cherished seed-lines.
 
One problem with the 'Round up ready' gene is that after sowing seeds  
containing it, the farmer's next action is to treat the field with Round up, a  
broad leaved herbicide.  This means that ONLY the desired crop will crow in  that f
ield for that year at least.  If it is a crop that is of benefit to  insect 
life, including honeybees, then there will be a local boom and bust as a  
desert is created when the brief flowering period is over.  I understand  from a 
lecture delivered yesterday by Dewey Caron at the National Honey Show  that 
there is much concern in N. America at the decline in native pollinators  and the 
'round up ready' gene was cited as one of the causes.
 
Chris

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