genetically modified bananas are here
 

Disease-resistant banana plant developed | General | National News | thedaily.com.au

The story is:-

"Queensland scientists have developed a genetically-modified banana plant capable of resisting a devastating disease.

While the development may hold hope for poor African nations, Australia's banana growers are opposed to the commercialisation of GM bananas in this country.

Scientists at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) inserted a single gene for resistance to fusarium wilt, or Panama disease, into the banana genome.

The gene stops cells dying when attacked by the disease.

Fusarium wilt has crippled the banana industry in the Northern Territory and would do the same in Queensland and NSW if it gained a foothold, said Tony Heidrich of the Australian Banana Growers Council.

Fusarium wilt cannot be removed from soil once it is infected, and the disease is spread by water, meaning even a tiny foothold could become a devastating attack on a banana-growing region.

Unlike GM-modified grain crops, there was no chance of the new, genetically-modified banana escaping trial plots, Mr Heidrich said.

Commercial varieties are clones and the plants cannot inter-breed but this leaves bananas susceptible to disease.

Mr Heidrich said he doubted whether Australian consumers would embrace the GM bananas yet, but the research was worthwhile in case of future disease outbreaks.

"What the Australian Banana Growers Council are saying is that we recognise we've got to look to the horizon and try to anticipate the kind of threats we might face in 10 or 15 or 20 years' time," he said.

"One of those may well be an outbreak of fusarium wilt in a major production area.

"So in our view it makes sense to spend some money on research of the development of GM varieties that address that issue, so that if we ever got to the point where we needed that variety and consumers were prepared to accept it, we've got something in the bag."

Even if field trials proved successful it would be years before the GM banana was ready for commercial use, he said.

The QUT scientists are attempting to boost the fruit's nutrient content using the same technology.

While some believe this could be a boon in places like Africa where the banana remains a staple, Bob Phelps of the Gene Ethics Network said there were simpler solutions to combating malnutrition.

"Tweaking these peoples' diets doesn't make much sense," Mr Phelps said.

"It would make a lot more sense if people were empowered to build their own gardens and to produce their own fresh foods.""


I hate the thought of genetically modified anything. if they are put on the shelves here they will stay with all of hte other GM crops.

To avoid GM crops in Australia anything made in the USA is not bought because your country doesn't segregate real food and geneticall modified foods.

Any soy product is avoided because it will probably contain GM soy.

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I am curious as to why the Australian Growers are resistant to the GM Cavendish.

I am assuming that they are afraid that people will not consume these bananas for either rational or irrational fears they may have about GM edibles.

Are there side effects to eating them? If so, what are they? Do the genetics that allow the Fusarium not to survive affect the human body?

Many of the arguments around genetic mutations surround the fact that they fear what is not understood. Mutations may have bad side effects (including death) for the species that is mutated, but there also are positive effects of mutations as well. Corn, for example, a very popular dish in this country, is highly mutated and has been for years. Milk comes from cows that have been mutated through selective breeding for centuries. We now have the technology to control the mutation and speed it up.

It is simple for someone to state "Tweaking these peoples' diets doesn't make much sense," Mr Phelps said.

"It would make a lot more sense if people were empowered to build their own gardens and to produce their own fresh foods."

Believe it or not, everyone today does not grow their own food and hunting in cities is limited.

Commercial farmers must provide for those who cannot grow their own. The agrarian/subsistance culture is long gone from most cultures in the world. Going backward to this would lessen our achievements and progress, especially in the health area. To suggest that everyone should grow their own food is, at best naive, or disingenuous in their argument.

This is a fascinating topic and should be in the Banana Economics Forum.

Jarred, does it make sense to move it?

Thanks!

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bepah

a lot of australian consumers will not buy Gm - - the government in league with monsanto - is determined to take the choice away from consumers by refusing to mandate that GM products be labelled GM

so consumers just avoid foods that may have GM products in them.

the biggest test will come in the next two months when Austrlias first GM food crop is put onto the market - again monsanto has paid enough dollars to ensure that the GM canola isn't segregated from the normal canola seed. So will Australian consumers stop buying cnola products?

I'd like to hope so.

GM is fine if the consumer has a choice

Reports on one Australias government TV stations have shown that GM produce causes temporary sterility in cows and pigs. Once the animals are removed from GM produce they return to a normal level of fertility.

Monsanto and other GM manufacturers have refused to allow any independent testing of their products - because independent testing goes against their licence agreement. Even your FDA can not conduct independent safety tests on Monsantos GM corn, soya, canola etc etc etc

Until the independent tests are carried out on the safety of GM produce all GM produce should be segregated and labelled.


edit

a couple of years ago a major chicken breeder tried to import GM corn - the outcry from consumers was massive. The poultry producer had to dump (or so they said) tonnes of GM corn and buy Austrlian corn - because it is GM free.

Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia even came out and said it is against GM feed for its chickens and won't buy chickens that have been fed GM produce

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It is the lack of choice forced upon us when gm products are mixed with non-gm products, and the deceitful way that these amalgams are fed into our food chain. It is nearly impossible for the consumer to avoid gm products when they are not labelled as such, and when the effects of consuming them have not been honestly researched - who can have any confidence that they are fit to be eaten. The indecent haste and frantic lobbying to force them on us, makes me fear the worst! This is corporate deceit that makes the likes of Enron look like choirboys - and governments are in cahoots with these companies.

Sorry - not really nana related - but couldn't help myself!!

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I have an incredibly long response to these posts, but I have been drinking wine with th wife and it is late.

I'll put something together tomorrow, but consider this.....

Nature gives us mutations all of the time, some of them fatal. We have the ability to stave off these organisms and keep us alive. Why would we allow nature to evolve to a point where we have no defense because of our Luddite opinions?

Talk to you tomorrow.

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You all have been eating genetically modified foods a lot longer than you think. Consider that many variations in plants were produced in the last 150 years by irradiating seeds (treating them with radioactive materials). Among other things, this has brought you berry and pomegranate varieties without thorns -- which of course lowers the price and pain of picking the fruit. Also, many of the variegated ornamental plants you cherish were produced this way, along with countless color variations in flowers.

By the way, one of the motivations for trying seed irradiation was that botanists noted the incredible variation in plants near surface deposits of radioactive uranium ore in southern Africa and other places.

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nature does give us mutations all of the time - but those mutations aren't the result of some multinational company trying to make a profit by gene splicing from like and unalike organisms. the natural mutations do not result in a multinational company hiding their research and paying political donataions in the hundreds of millions of dollars so that no government stops them from making a profit

the natural mutations do not result in farmers not being able to keep seed from one harvest to make the next harvest.

everything about monsanot and their ilk is unnatural and to try and compare natural mutations with what they do is misguided and totally wrong

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This concept of splicing like and unlike organisms is misleading. It is false to assume that the 1st half of one organism sequence is being replaced by a half section or whatever of another organism sequence.

More accurately, a whole rRNA sequence contains 100,000 to millions of nodes or sites. The typical goal in gene splicing (e.g., wheat) is to replace molecules bonded to one or a few sites that produce undesirable traits -- such as disease susceptibility. Researchers then look in nature for an existing rRNA sequence which has a small portion that matches the target area of the gene (e.g., the few sites on the wheat) -- BUT with different or sometimes no bonded molecules that do not produce the undesirable trait.

Notice that I am not saying whether I approve or disapprove of this practice, I am simply asking for accuracy in the discussion. Agricultural GMO means replacing a very tiny portion of one sequence with a tiny, nearly identical portion of another.

:lurk:

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I believe any consumer who has decided not to purposely consume a GMO product should have that choice. I don't think it's too much to ask for.

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You're right, it's not too much to ask, but I don't think there is as much to fear as some seem to think. But the labeling should be there for those who don't want the GMO's.

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Do tell.....

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Paradisi - Do you have something in Australian called canola which is not genetically modified??? What canola is given to us by Canada is all GM, it was an alteration of rapeseed to remove an undesirable compound (an acid, I believe), and they called that GM product "canola". There are some things I don't like about the way it was done and I've chosen to use another oil which I believe is better anyways (see another running thread).

I believe most GM products are probably okay for human consumption but there are too many unknowns that can only be resolved after many years of testing or consumption and it's probably best not to use our bodies in these tests.

As Richard states, a lot of the fear is due to misunderstandings. Centuries ago many people were also opposed to the idea of people messing around with plants and doing grafting. It sure didn't seem natural and it obviously wasn't. Today there is virtually no opposition to this practice (see my photos at Correia Chestnut Farm - American Grown Fresh Chestnuts From Our Family Farm to You; large hand-harvested Colossal chestnuts, recipes, instructions for roasting chestnuts, chestnut roasters, chestnut knives and you'll easily guess my view on the subject!).

Diversity is something that is very lacking in most large-scale farming and it's mostly driven by the fact that the vast majority of consumers want the cheapest source of food possible. You can blame Monsanto for it if you want, but it all comes back to the consumer. You vote with your pocketbook.

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I agree.

Also, IF any consumer chooses not to consume a GMO because a few of the millions of chemical structures in the genome have been replaced by a few different "receptor" molecules, THEN by the same logic they should not consume:

• alcohol
• THC (marijuana)
• many types of pain relievers
• SSRI antidepressants

because these all alter the body's natural function by masquerading as another chemical normally found in the body or by more aggressive substitution in chemical receptor locations.

Having said that, I believe there are better reasons not to consume some or all GMO products.

Most disgusting GMO application: Monsanto's unethical and usury production of wheat and other crops which not only have sterile seeds, but also interbreed with some natural varieties of wheat (e.g., growing wild in Canada) so that they take on the same properties. The purpose of course, is to make growers completely dependent on Monsanto for seed.

Most worthwhile GMO application I know of: My cousin would not be alive today if it were not for cultures of genetically modified cells which reversed a rare anemic disorder found in that branch of the family.

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Harvey...if your ALA levels are high watch out for that canola oil.

" Why the interest in alpha-linolenic acid? The attention is merited. The Harvard Men's Health Watch, Jan 2002, cited the Lyon Dietary Health Study, which studied a "Mediterranean" type diet enriched with canola margarine, and showed that "Over a four-year period, the high ALA diet produced a 72% reduction in heart attacks and cardiac deaths and 56% lower risk of dying from any cause (including prostate cancer)". However, the Physicians' Health Study found that "Men with moderately high ALA blood levels were 3.4 times as likely to develop prostate cancer than men with the lowest levels"

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Exactly why they don't want the public to know what they are eating. Knowledge is power.

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Is everyone against genetic modification or the companies producing the products?

It doesn't make sense when you say that GM is bad because of Monsanto.

Humans have been modifying the genetics of organisms for thousands of years. Try to go out in the wild and find a product in the market that is exactly the same. When we breed plants for certain attributes, we end of with many unknown mutations that could have negative results.

With GM, you know what has been changed. With testing, you find wether or not its dangerous.

Nothing in the food market is natural. Everything has been modified by humans. GM is just a new way to do it.

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crickets.....chirp chirp

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OMG, Mitch, Did you turn into a cricket?

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Mitchel, as I wrote above, I don't use canola oil. I used it until earlier this year when I replaced it with rice bran oil (but still use olive oil for some uses also). See another thread about RBO.

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Agreed.

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I grow a GM crop planted with seed developed by Monsanto. I don't have a problem with them prohibiting me from collecting its seed for planting. I have plenty of other options and could buy seed from other companies but I make the decision it's worth it for me.

Some people will complain about it and think they should be able to plant seeds with the genes put in place by Monsanto even though they agreed not to. The cases that I think really stinks is where someone plants a crop and he genetically modified crops of neighbors cross-breed with it and then Monsanto sometimes will take legal action to prohibit them from planting the seed from their own crop even though they've never made an agreement to do so. Sometimes it is gray as someone will intentionally plant something next to a neighbor that they wouldn't otherwise. In other cases, I think Monsanto should be buying them replacement seed. Many times it is hard to tell, though.

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I cut out bits - hope I haven't altered the gist of your comments.

Monsanto won't allow independent testing of their products. That's why Mopnsanto is bad and their products are dangerous - its like tobacco companies telling you everything is AOK - but refusing to let you test their products independently.

Pig and cattle farmers in the USA and Canada complain about their animals becoming sterile when fed GM products. - - no testing available because of the licence agreement

Ecuador Columbia and Bolivia are sueing the USA for spraying Monsantos zero/round up/glysophate - - the chemical is causing the same problems in their populations as agent orange did in Vietnam - again no testing of the product why??

Monsanto is one of the major political donors in Australia - is it in the USA?

monsanto is dangerous

one member here says they gladly grow monsantios crops - good. As a consumer give me the option to chose if I want to eat monsantos products - you can't - your supplier of seed refuses to let you segregate the crop.

This is where market forces come into it - if you are fair dinkum about market forces - label the crops and let me the consumer chose.

I mentioned before about a major chicken producer dumping USA corn because it was contaminated with GM corn - even KFC over here has come out and said it won't buy chicken fed on GM corn..... what does KFC in the USA say/

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Did someone say "testing" of GMO's? :ha:

[YT]K8E_zMLCRNg[/YT]

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Don't you all become so fixed on crops that you forget GM has done a lot of good in medicine -- my cousin for example.

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Pardisi - much independent testing is done of Monsanto products in the USA. Such testing has been required for licensing of their pesticides to begin with and also for permitting their crop seeds to be marketed. My license agreement with Monsanto in no way prohibits me from doing any form of testing. I believe there is some reason to be concerned over large companies gaining too much control over our food supply but also think too much misinformation gets spread around.

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I'm all for it. Have you tried to grow sweet corn or field corn without it--as opposed to the kind that's GM?
When you can produce unsprayed sweet corn into September without worms in it, and sell it at the farmers market without any problems with people finding worms, that's a thing of beauty. Of course we tell people it's GM corn, but which would you rather have? gene spliced corn, or sprayed corn? I prefer the spliced myself. And it's cheaper to produce too.
Even with spraying, late sweet corn will usually have about 30% or more ears with worms. And I'm talking having to spray once a week or so for a month.
No matter how many people at the market SAY that they're in favor of non altered corn, if you shuck back a couple of ears of each, guess which ones are preferred/sold?
That's why they're doing it. And I can see how that would be very helpful in developing countries that can't afford sprays. Their production would skyrocket per acre. Wouldn't that help end world hunger?
There are many sides to any argument. But with so many people wanting to "go green" I can't see why this wouldn't be helpful.
I just wish they'd get cucumbers/pumpkins/zucchini that's spliced to resist the cucumber beetles!

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Actually:

1. Abnormally depressed or aggressive people are often prescribed SSRI drugs, but if they have poor consultation, misguided prescriptions, or stopped their medications they do "go postal"
2. I did not give SSRI as an example of gene splicing being a good thing. I said that if you object to the chemistry of GMO then you should also object to the chemistry of SSRI.

Re: genetically modified bananas are here
 

This is an interesting topic to be sure. One that we will all likely never agree on. I grew up on a farm and we grew corn, wheat, soybeans, etc. When I was growing up you really never heard of GM crops, though they were probably there. It seems like this really got big around the time I was in college (I graduated in 1995) and even moreso since. I think that GMO's are probably the wave of the future, for better or worse. I personally think that a lot of good has and will continue to come from GMO's but I do agree that there should be full disclosure/testing/labeling. It only seems right. It's good for us to have this converstation, though, as I think it is a good way for us all to get a little more educated on the topic.

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I buy organic corn with worms and appreciate the fact that they are there! A few missing kernels doesn't matter to me.

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There is a simple cure for the whole issue. Put the genes for strawberry flavor into a water melon. No one, except for a fringe few, is going to complain about at 25# strawberry with the shippability of a watermelon, the shelf life of a watermelon and the ease of preparation of a watermelon. Then do the same with peach flavor genes. Anyone going to object to a 25# peach with no fuzzy skin to peel? Oh, and the strawberry melon and peach melon will be 30 cents a pound, not $3/lb as peaches are, or $3/basket as strawberries are. Suddenly very few will be so anti-GM.

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monsanto will be wrong, the devil incarnate, a terrible company until the day they allow me to chose if I want to purchase their product or not.

give me a choice. give me a label. don't mix GM products with ordinary food products unless they are labelled as such. I'll even take sweet corn with worms in it. (extra protein)

let the market chose.

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I wonder if they could modify a banana plant to survive my zone 5 winters. Maybe cross with an opuntia from our region. :-)

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There are a lot of good things that can come from GM plants. I heard of one (not seen the results), where they put a gene from a potato, into a strawberry. This gene was a frost resistant one; it was one of very many in the makeup of the strawberry, and it didn't make the berry taste like a potato, but it gave the berry plants greater frost resistance. Around here, strawberry crops can get wiped out by one late frost. Isn't this little insurance helpful?

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Did you know that organic corn is sprayed with the Bt protein? It is used as an organic pesticide.

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Not the corn I buy with worms actively eating it!

Btw, I'm not scared of BT and have used it on my own flower gardens to control caterpillars like the cabbage moth from completely destroying them.

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Then there is the way they GM food crops to resist herbicides so that they can spray more often to keep weeds down - can't be right..... It could all be used for the greater good - but they have lost their way and corporate greed and profit has taken over - think of the increased sales of herbicides.

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That is the opposite of what takes place, actually. Glyphosate resistant plants allow spraying with something that is more effective in killing the weed and allows for fewer sprays and the use of less toxic herbicide. I know this very well from personal experience. I grow conventional and "Roundup Ready" alfalfa and can sometimes get by with one spray per year for both but in a year with a lot of weed pressure the conventional will require a second spray. When I spray the conventional I use a combination of three herbicides and must wear a respirator. Glyphosate has a much lower toxicity level and a respirator is not needed. The main risk of glyphosate is the surfactant contained in it is hazardous to amphibians so care must be taken when applying to open waterways. Growers have similar experiences with "Roundup Ready" corn (field corn grown for grain, not for human consumption). To control broadleaf weeds in conventional corn the standard treatment is the use of 2,4-D which is very volatile and fumes can drift and cause damage to vineyards located even up to a mile away (or more). Both conventional and Roundup Ready corn are usually sprayed only once for weeds as the plant height quickly reduces the chance for weeds to compete.

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Thanks Harvey for some real data to counteract what I had read and heard. Please don't take my comments as a personal attack for growing GM crops - it is mostly fear of the unknown and the suspicion that we have no choice in the matter. Look at the way that the world's soya supply has been contaminated by mixing GM and non-GM soya so that no-one can avoid it unless they refuse to eat pre - prepared or processed foods. For over 15 years our family has avoided eating anything that has not been prepared from scratch - but what has been fed to the meat we eat?

Sorry to be a pain when I know that farmers have a hard life - without you we would all starve!! I just don't trust the big corporations not to lie!!

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Give me a slap and tell me to stop!!!

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No problem, I did not take it as a personal attack at all and know that it is hard to get actual experiences with many of these things. And don't feel too bad for farmers...the work can be hard but right now it is pretty rewarding. Seems a bright spot in the economy, though some sectors are having troubles.

Funny thing.... I'm not about to say I have no concern about GM crops....and when I'm out irrigating alfalfa, etc. I will sometimes grab a stem of it and chew it. If I'm in a field of GM alfalfa I sometimes think "what am I doing?" and spit it out! lol I don't know why I chew on that cow food anyway since it don't really care for it...just seems like the "thing to do". ;)

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Pauly, I'm not aware of any GM tomato on the market today. Flavr Saver was a GM tomato that was brought to market in the 80s but flopped. The problem with most tomatoes bought in the market is that they are picked green and then stored for many months. They were busy picking these green tomatoes earlier this month (the largest portion of these grown in the U.S. is in the county to the south of me).

The sterility issue you've brought up is unrelated to this discussion, but my understanding of the problem is that it's primarily related due to high estrogen levels in the drinking water supply of many parts of the country. It gets there from women taking birth control pills and once it's in our water, it cannot be easily removed.

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I think it also has to do with the varieties they grow and how they are grown. I'd be willing to bet that a Cherokee Purple grown in real live soil and then picked green and stored until ripe would have twice the flavor of the box tomatoes available in the grocery markets. They just like growing box tomatoes for their shipability,(is that a word?) bug and disease resistance.

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That bit about infant mortality rates is a bit outrageous.....do you have documentation? Statements like that need to be backed up.

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Here is a list of infant mortality rate for many countries in the world for 2007.

As you can see, the Bangladesh rate is nearly 10 times the US rate.

Please be careful of what 'facts' you state, people will stop believing anything you say.

Infant Mortality and Life Expectancy for Selected Countries, 2007 — Infoplease.com

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Mitchel, I don't know that any tomato picked green will taste much better than another one that is also picked green. It's sort of like betting that your Porsche can handle better than my pickup, each with two wheels missing! ;)

Picked ripe, many of the varieties available in markets are definitely inferior in taste as they have been bred mostly to withstanding shipping (shipability is okay, I guess) and also disease resistance. I don't know of any that are bred to resist insects, but maybe insects prefer tasty tomatoes over poor tasting ones??? lol

I am trying to grow tomatoes in my greenhouse this year to avoid resorting to store bought tomatoes that are a waste of time and money. Last year I failed as I discovered I needed a much bigger pot - a 5 gallon pot quickly became rootbound and this year I'm using half of a 50 gallon barrel. When I did a tomato nutrient deficiency study in college (in the late 70s) me and my partner used hydroponics and the tomato was in about a 2 gallon bucket so I thought I could get by with a smaller pot, but I guess I would need to water and fertilize it several times a day to make it work.

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I think this calls for some experimenting next season! Save your loose change, your gonna need it! :drum:

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not in australia

and here's alink to more about GM products

Permaculture Research Institute of Australia » The Failures of Genetically Modified Crops Continue

and it looks as though there are no missouri and arkansas rice farmers on bananas.org - - the link above explains many are having a lot of trouble with contaminated rice (onya monsanto) - - the rice farmers biggest markets are in japan where GM anything is not wanted or accepted.

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Leave it to Pauly, he's wishing things would rot in his refrigerator a bit faster! Just joking... ;)

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I'll be the first to put in my order for a zone 5 hardy Musa Ingens that glows in the dark!

Fantastic!

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