Wow, where have I been? Nice discussion here! I am a student (again) at UT-Knoxville, and am majoring in Plant Sciences - Science and Biotechnology. I'm still early on in my courses, so no biotech courses yet. I have had discussions with Neal Stewart, a faculty member and biotech guy there. I find this area to be particularly fascinating, as the possibilities are seemingly endless! I am interested in the ornamental side though, not really the agricultural side so much. Unfortunately, there are only a small handful of companies involved in transgenic ornamentals, so looks like I'll probably start out with the ag side.
Mitchell and Mike, I respect your opinions on GMOs, but disagree with your outlook. Mitchell, I also found this article on that first website:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/borlaug.html
Seems that biotechnology isn't the devil in disguise after all!
As for the second website, here is their agenda, taken directly from their website:
OCA's overall political program is the Organic Agenda 2005-15, a six-point platform calling for:
The conversion of American agriculture to at least 30% organic by the year 2015, including major reforms in agricultural subsidies and appropriations to help family farmers make the transition to organic, develop local and regional markets, and adopt renewable energy practices.
Fair Trade and economic justice, not so-called corporate-driven "Free Trade" as the global norm.
A global moratorium on genetically engineered foods and crops.
I stopped there, after seeing that it is a painfully biased website. I am all for organic foods, and buy them frequently myself. I even have a garden and grow my own organic foods! For them to call for a "global moratorium" on GMOs makes me sick. Let's look at some of the GOOD things that biotechnology has done for the world:
Golden Rice. Developed in 1999, this rice has beta-carotene (and hence, Vitamin A) in it. In many third world countries, kids are going blind from vitamin A deficiency, and later dying from malnutrition. It's no secret that rice is a staple crop in lots of these countries, and sometimes the only food for people to eat. However, rice (as it exists naturally) has no vitamin A in it. Golden Rice, a GMO, does have Vit. A. Also, this rice is being provided to these countries
at no cost! There goes Mike's theory of companies trying to bleed 3rd world countries completely dry. Here's more on Golden Rice:
http://www.goldenrice.org/
Neal Stewart, mentioned earlier, is involved with a transgenic plant (that I can't remember what it is) that is able to detect TNT in the soil. When a laser is beamed at it from above, it will glow fluorescent if TNT is underneath it. This plant is to be used to detect land mines in areas of the world where there are still large mine fields.
As already brought up, we in the U.S. eat transgenic corn and soybeans every day. No ill effects have been detected as of yet. Yes, there are some allergens associated with some GMOs, but no more than with naturally occurring plants! People fear what they do not know. I agree that the ramifications of GMOs haven't yet been fully realized, especially as to the effects to other species of plants that may accept pollen from these GMOs and produce seed. Last time I checked, the average life expectancy in this country was still going up also. Before 1940, all food produced in this country was organic. There are some naturally occurring, organic plants that we eat, that can have trace amounts of harmful chemicals in them that are toxic or carcinogenic.
OK, enough about that. Just wanted to represent the other side of the debate is all.
Bananas are notoriously difficult to transform anyway. It can and has been done, but not easily. I have looked into it already, and have some great ideas of my own. They will probably never be fully realized though, unless I end up being a biotech researcher at a university. This is one of the only companies (it may be THE only one) that uses transgenics on the ornamental side:
http://www.florigene.com/
Guess I could move to Australia!
