The term "GM" was not used until gene splicing techniques
started
being
used. Until then, crop improvement was done by animal
husbandry, plant breeding
and the like. No "engineering" was
required. Gregor Mendel was not a genetic
engineer.
I also disagree with a statement that you
made:
Genetic engineering can not only
produce results much
faster than crossing and selection, it
can
do things that are otherwise
impossible, like getting corn
to
produce a bacterial toxin that kills corn
borers. We must
decide
whether that is less hazardous than spraying the field
with
poison.
If we do neither, we lose up to 40% of the crop to pests.
This is a prime example of terrible, bad, no-good awful
design practices. You have your blinders on.
bt corn expresses the toxin in
every part of the plant,
including those parts which are naturally airborne. We
have
pesticides floating everywhere during most of the growing
season. Real bt
(bacillus thuringensis) expresses that toxin
ONLY when it invades a pest. It is
localized, and is present
only where it is needed. bt does not spread toxin
everywhere, regardless of whether it is needed or not.
If the government
was consistent, the EPA would shut this
down quicker than you could say "Jack
Sprat".
Also, spraying the field with poison in the absence of GM bt
corn
is not the only option. You could also spread bacillus
thuringensis on the
field. Then, when corn rootworms
appeared, the bt would infect them and kill
them. No toxin
anywhere except in the pest. Otherwise,
nothing would happen.
No toxin AT ALL would be present.
Your statements are full of preconceived
notions that are
not consistent.
Many people pretend that farming was Stone
Age level until
the multinational corporate agribusiness firms came on the
scene and saved us all from our own ignorance. That doesn't
make it
so.
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