August 14, 2006
Escaped Transgenic Grass In Oregon
According to a report in Nature, transgenic grass produced by The Scotts Company has escaped its test plot, and been found almost two miles away. The grass is resistant to Roundup and other herbicides. The bioengineered grass could pose a significant threat both to wild grass species, as well as to the sod industry of the Willamette Valley. Grasses can spread widely and rapidly leading one biologist to state:"We've broken down the barriers -- things happen so fast," he says. "It's like Darwin on steroids."
This is not the first time that engineered grasses have posed such a threat. In 1998 a form of Kentucky Blue grass swept trough Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, destroying habitats in its wake. Since the current escapee is also herbicide and Roundup resistant, eradication could be very difficult indeed.
One might wonder at the controls on genetically engineered crops. Since most plants - including grass - reproduces via seed and pollen, growing these crops in an open environment seems foolhardy at best. While they did set up a five kilometer monitoring around the test site, that is hardly a controlled environment. Obviously, the grass did escape. Now that it is out, eradication is questionable.
Posted by rowan at August 14, 2006 12:39 PM | [eMail this article!] |Attack of the Megolith Monsters all over again...! Make it rain buckets!
Posted by: Ed at August 14, 2006 2:38 PMI actually heard this story on my TV today (6-28-06), but my head was buried in a pillow and I don't remember what channel. Maybe this story will become a widely known story now and worry people. Especially the part about the transgenic grass cross breeding with other species and turning them immune to chemical controls, possibly even insects(?)...on the other hand, regardless of the legitimate concerns of the food industry, etc., when I was a child there were many varieties of butterflies and moths, grasshoppers and dragon flies, other flying and crawling things, and now there are none here. If it weren't for commercial bees there'd be no pollination. The city limits have moved two more miles south and there are no deer pheasants, or garter snakes anymore, either. Raccoons are having a lot of fun, though. They know the routes of the garbage trucks and travel in our storm sewers from neighborhood to neighborhood, keeping track of how gardens are doing and raiding all the cans at the curb down the block before the truck shows up at Six a.m. to dump them. On the one hand I know I should condemn the escape of this mutant grass, but on the other hand...well, I guess if "Truman" wants only one handed cheer leaders, the escapees won't hear me applaud...
Posted by: Ed at August 28, 2006 10:26 PM