Re: pollen mobility

E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor (ACLARK@plant.uoguelph.ca)
Mon, 21 Dec 1998 17:22:34 EST

Bob McG. The example from experimental plots in the UK is small
potatoes compared to what has been coming through on Western
Producer. In two separate articles, farmers are reporting movement
of GE transgenes into their crops, either from an adjoining field
they also own or from land owned (and sown) by others. In the latter
case, the farmer is reportedly being sued by Monsanto for retaining
and reseeding RR seed. Only problem - the farmer never bought it in
the first place. He claims it came into his canola fields from what
Jeremy Rifkin calls "genetic pollution" - movement from other fields.
Reference for this is in my latest talk, given to the Ecological
Farmers Association of Ontario (see my homepage).

A prof at Alberta was queried on this - his response - no surprise to
him. He and others had published back in the 70's showing
field-scale (not small plot) canola pollen can move 8 km (yes, that
is kilometers) via insect pollinators, such as flies. Canola is the
biggest risk for this at present (apart from other open-pollinated
potentially-GE crops like alfalfa). Soybean has a small % outcrossing
- 0.3% I'm told - but this would of course be enough to nullify a
neighboring claim by organic farmers for GE free crops. Corn is
another freely outcrossing species, where pollen can reportedly move
about 2 km.

How can Monsanto claim to retain "ownership' of their precious
transgenes when the pollen is so very mobile? Is this where
Terminator, comes in? And what is a chemical-based farmer going to
do when his/her field of Crop X gets RR-resistance from one neighbor,
resistance to another herbicde form a second, resistance to another
herbicide from a third - and so on? Ann
ACLARK@plant.uoguelph.ca
Dr. E. Ann Clark
Associate Professor
Crop Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
Phone: 519-824-4120 Ext. 2508
FAX: 519 763-8933
http://www.oac.uoguelph.ca/www/CRSC/faculty/eac.htm

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