From the looks of the “regulated letters of inquiry” page over at the United States Department of Agriculture’s “Animal and Plant Inspection Services,” the list of genetically modified plants looking to enter our environment and food supplies includes potatoes, pineapples, and sorghum (a sweetener with multiple uses). Then there’s the one we don’t consume: lawn grass. In certain ways, it might be the most frightening.
Why? Because it’s completely unregulated. It needs no prior approval from the USDA before it can be unleashed in America’s front yards. And it’s not alone. Among the other GE plants escaping oversight are a corn that promises less methane from the cows who eat it and an ornamental plant that glows in the dark. Yes, really (scroll down to “How We Make the Glowing Plant”).
Glowing plants and yard grass might seem innocent enough since we don’t eat them. But, as every organic farmer knows, cross-contamination of organic crops means they are no longer organic. And cross-contamination is a real threat. This list of cross-contamination cases (link no longer available), though it begins in 2006 and goes back from there, references how easy it is to happen, even when so-called tightest controls are in effect. The number of incidents since 2006 continues to grow, including most infamously, the Oregon GMO wheat contamination of 2013.
Mirroring the Oregon case, GMO wheat surprisingly turned up at a former Monsanto test site in Montana in 2014, even though the altered wheat had not been planted there since 2003.
All these engineered plants escaped to contaminate other crops, even though their growing was confined and regulated. Not so with Scott’s Miracle-Gro GMO bluegrass. Because of loopholes, it doesn’t need to be tested before its released to the public.
Scott’s has tried this before, in 2003. That time its GMO grass escaped into the wild, effectively dooming its commercial introduction. Despite that set back, Scott’s has continued to push for GMO lawn grass.
Of course, the GMO pushers claim good reasons for committing to genetically modified grass: less need for fertilizer, drought-tolerance, less mowing. Scott’s said its new bluegrass had deeper color. But often, the only true advantage is that it’s more tolerant of pesticides, specifically Roundup.
There’s also an attempt to protect sales and profit margins. Sales of grass seed have been down in recently years. In 2013, sales again decreased if only by 1%. The pro-business website The Motley Fool takes the economic concerts into consideration but also weighs in on the dangers and other consequences.
But the big issue here is that these products will go untested and unregulated. Grass isn’t the only crop to escape through the regulatory loopholes. Other included GMO crops that will show up in the food supply, including an herbicide-resistant canola. History has shown that all these mutations will escape and breed with other crops, something that threatens organic farming, genetic diversity, and the very dependence of our food supply.
The recent focus on labeling foods with genetically altered ingredients remains important. But we must also acknowledge the entire spectrum of evils — there, I said it — that accompany the commercial growing of GMOs. We think a full accounting of GMOs effects on the environment and plant diversity must be addressed. Discussion open at the Planet Natural GMO Forum or here in the comments and on Facebook. Go at it.
Eric Vinje founded Planet Natural with his father Wayne in 1991, originally running it as a grasshopper bait mail-order business out of a garage.
Eric is now retired, but is still a renowned gardener known for his expertise in composting, organic gardening and pest control, utilizing pesticide-free options, such as beneficial insects.
Eric believes when you do something good for the environment, the effects will benefit generations to come.
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One Response to “GMO Battle 2015”
what i really don’t understand is why we are so preoccupied with appearances but we don’t seem to give a flying …woohoo about the solutions to our health, things that have appeared quite recently that we are dealing with but other countries that are in Europe and on other continents don’t, I’m talking about all the allergies, the chronic pain, the abundance of painkillers we take in order to cope. How come there is blue grass, everybody wants it, the sales go up, it looks great, the neighborhood is unique, and do we ever stop to consider how that can affect us? I mean the bigger picture. I mean the world where our kids will live in. Is that all that matters? That now we have “work-free” grass, that we don’t need to cut it, water it, maintain it…is that all that matters? Is there nobody to cry out loud “Has anybody done any tests to see how this will affect us?” Are there going to be any connections between this new lawn and the water? Is it going to affect other plants? Is my kid going to be allergic to it? I don’t know….Do we see blue grass and everything goes out the window?