NOTE the response to this newspaper article from a professor on spread of
ge pollen. (at bottom)
posted by laurel
Organic, high-tech growers square off
Chicago Sun-Times
August 15, 1999
HUDSON, WIS. - Organic food maker Terra Prima Inc. got a sour taste of
modern food technology late last year. After a test by an importer in the
Netherlands found a trace of genetically engineered corn in Terra tortilla
chips, company officials destroyed 87,000 bags of the product because they
couldn't sell it as organic. The farmer who sold Terra the corn said he was
unaware of the problem, explaining wind probably blew corn pollen from a
neighboring farm onto his field.
The explanation is plausible, though most corn pollen doesn't travel more
than 60 feet, said Bob Nielsen, an agronomist with Purdue University. The
possibility of migrating pollen troubles not just organic producers but
also farmers who don't want to be penalized for growing genetically
modified food.
LETTER by professor Philip Regal:
"I had warned about this at conferences since at least 1989, as I recall. I
warned at scientific
workshops and in publications that the industry and its allies in government
had better review seed purity standards because these had been based
on old-fashioned scientific assumptions and on narrow practical goals that
would not apply in the case of genetically engineered organisms as they
would soon be used.
[See 1990 publication in my bibliography through my URL below: "Gene flow
and adaptability in transgenic agricultural organisms." Note also that I
analysed scientific knowledge of pollen travel distances extensively in a
review paper in 1982: "Pollination by wind and animals: Ecology of
geographic patterns. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 13:492-524, before I had ever
imagined that I would get involved in biotech matters.]
It is true that, on average, wind-carried pollen does not travel very far.
But this simply means that pollen settles out and the concentration dilutes
rapidly in still air. Biologically effective travel distances in actuality
vary enormously depending on the size of the source (e.g. number of acres of
corn fields) and direction and speed of winds. Pollen from large fields will
thus be able to pollinate over great distances even in relatively still air
because there is so much pollen to begin with to settle out and dilute. If
the wind is blowing in the right direction, the distances then can be even
more greatly increased. One can think of the lone pine tree out on a rock
in an ocean or large lake miles from other pine trees, it will often get
pollinated because there are so many pine trees as a source and because of
favorable winds.
Somehow I doubt that the agronomist knows much about this subject, if he was
quoted correctly, because agronomists have generally gone with conventional
wisdom on pollination rather than on up-to-date scientific knowledge. For
most of their needs the old ideas have been good enough."
Philip J. Regal
Professor
EEB Department
1987 Upper Buford Circle
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108
Home webpage:
http://biosci.umn.edu/~pregal/phil.html
Direct to biosafety webpage: http://biosci.umn.edu/~pregal/biosafety.html
(612) 343-5590 (Home&answering machine)
(612) 624-6777 (Dept. FAX machine)
e-mail-> regal001@maroon.tc.umn.edu
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