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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] GM plants, corn , court cases

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  • From: road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] GM plants, corn , court cases
  • Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 18:20:24 -0500


On Friday, February 13, 2004, at 12:48 PM, Peter Knop wrote:

1.) Can anyone give me the citation for a court case where Monsanto (or
others) won on the "ownership" issue of drifted pollen?

I see several people have already sent links about this.

2) Of course all corns we eat today are genetically modified if one wants
to be technical about it - hybridising modifies the genetics. Inserting by
mechanical or chemical means new genes is what I guess I would define GM
plants to be - does someone else have a better definition I could use?

This is one of those cases where the term may have different technical meanings depending on who's using it. "Genetic modification" apparently has been used for many years as a technical term to apply to what is thought of by most people as traditional breeding. However there is a technical definition for the way in which it's used by most people arguing about it today; in fact, there's now a legal definition. I quote from the USDA organic standards, in which these methods are being defined so they can be forbidden. (To further complicate the issue, these standards define these specifically, and confusingly, as "excluded methods". I don't know who came up with this term, which is used by nobody I've ever heard of except USDA. It makes little sense, especially as other things besides GMO's are also excluded from organic growing, but only GMO's are in the definition.) Anyway, here's the legal definition:



"A variety of methods used to genetically modify organisms or influence their growth and development by means that are not possible under natural conditions . . . such methods include cell fusion, micro-encapsulation and macroencapsulation, and recombinant DNA technology (including gene deletion, gene doubling, introducing a foreign gene, and changing the positions of genes when achieved by recombinant DNA technology).

Such methods do not include the use of traditional breeding, conjugation, fermentation, hybridization, in vitro fertilization, or tissue culture."



-- Rivka





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