> It would seem that the question of whether, or not, the synthetic
> product GMO canola meal would biodegrade readily or not would be pretty
> easy to ascertain experimentally.
Hello, and sorry for the delay in responding back on this subject. I have been
on the road, ( Decorah-Lansing, IA).However, the weather in northern Iowa has
been more than cooperative if not perfect ( unless global warming's evidence
is seen in every day 20 degrees above normal)....
We are getting closer on understanding what needs to be done in order to
achieve some comprehension on GMOs in the biospehere-after ingestion, or in
the wild. One flaw in our system is that we assume that, if the manures and
other debris have been composted, microbial action and heat have rendered the
compost benign. This is sort of like alchemy. Arsenic is found in large,
probably unallowable quantities in poultry manure. Microbes can do a lot of
neat things, but altering elements is not one of them. Therapeutic livestock
medicines and pesticide residues from feeds given to conventional livestock
remain in the manure. These manures are composted and applied to organic
production fields and the raw manures even are allowable when an arbitrary
amount of time has elapsed between application and harvest of the crop. I have
always applied common sense to the question of antibiotics: The labels read
keep " keep in a cool dark place", which does not describe a compost pile or
the outdoors in bright sunshine. So I figure that antibiotics are degraded in
the process and by exposure to the outdoor environment.
Analytical testing is not mandatory usually for these composts or manures.
When organic standards call for no application of prohibited substances, we
ought to demand of ourselves the same kind of strictness that we expect, for
example, in the discussion going on over inerts in pesticides formulations
used in certified organic production.
Testing for GMO contamination after composting? Besides the still unresolved
health issue, or the environmental contamination problems, imagine the short
term consequences for organic farmers who may contaminate their land with
organisims that inadvertently cross, with innoculants with a GMO marker that
is somehow taken up into the crop? The anti-GMO trend is motivating consumers
world-wide. Organic production prohbits GMOs and consumers expect that organic
products will not contain them. Therefore, this is all the more reason to ask
for a moratorium on the field production of GMO crops, innoculants, and other
inputs until lay people like me are satisfied that the safety claims and
environmental clearances are justified.
Much appreciating the discussion
Steve Sprinkel
Iowa City
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