GreenWatch

B. McPherson Does food as entertainment justify chancing the genetic pollution of our wild animals? The commercial distribution of GMO fish as pets has biologists worried about wild fish stocks. A genetic engineering company, Yorktown Technologies, debuted a glow in the dark variant of the zebra fish as GloFish in 2003. The natural variety is a native of south east Asia and is not found in N. America. They originally were marketed as pets glowing green in the dark. Now they are available in five colours – Starfire Red, Electric Green, Sunburst Orange, Galactic Purple and Cosmic Blue. The GloFish are touted as the first genetically modified organism as a pet. Recently GloFish has made available to the public, glowing green tetras for the home hobbyist . While the GM zebra fish are unable to survive in the wild in N. America, the tetras can. South Florida is particularly at risk for these creatures to establish themselves. S. America is also at risk. The GM fish are ba...

B. McPherson Currently genetically modified alfalfa is not released in Canada, but is probably will be soon. The US approved it about this time last year with no restrictions. A farmer can plant Roundup Ready alfalfa next to an organic farmer and ignore the inevitable genetic pollution of the organically grown crop. Monsanto has developed a patented seed that will allow farmers to spray their fields with Roundup or glyphosate to kill weeds. As with other GM seeds, if the modified plants are found growing in a neighbouring field, the farmer with the intrusive plants is in trouble and all kinds of hurt comes down on him from the corporation owning the patents. A few GM plants in an organic farmer’s field are enough to disqualify him from using the organic label and consequently his crop losses mount as his crop loses value. Because farmers who do not qualify for the organic label, but eshew GM seeds cannot label their product as GMO free, people can only be sure that they...