GMO Threatens Crop Bio-Diversitry

What has been missing from the debate over biotechnology in the form of genetically GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) is a reasonable assessment of the true potential benefits and dangers from these lab creations.

Possible GMO Contamination

One of the greatest threats from GMO crops is not often addressed: what happens when GMOs escape the confinement of their fields. Maize, for instance, is a wind-pollinated crop that is capable of spreading pollen 50 miles a day in a stiff wind. With plenty of stiff winds in the likely future, this threat to the centers of crop bio-diversity that traditional plant breeders rely upon is lost to GMO contamination.

More Impact Analysis Is Required

In the case of commodity crops, the use of GMOs does result in the use of fewer pesticide applications in a conventional system. What that statement fails to take into account is the use of energy intensive inputs that is required to grow crops in that same conventional system.

One might suspect that before the government of the US threw its weight behind mandatory ethanol blend and other compulsory acts of participation in such a grand scheme to divert crops away from the human food chain someone would have checked.