Dr McLean (8-2-13) shows that genetically engineered organisms released into the environment are irretrievable.

Herbicide-resistant weeds pose costly problems for US farmers. The resistance is blamed largely on high agrichemical use since the release of GE crops; e.g. glyphosate-resistant corn, soy, canola, cotton, sugarbeet, alfalfa. The cause of NZ's first case of resistance was over-application to ryegrass of glyphosate[i][i], the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide.

Experimental GE trees around Rotorua will mostly be engineered using ‘terminator' technology to make the trees sterile, i.e. unable to flower or replicate. GE traits can be unstable and variants of terminator technology offer no absolute guarantee of sterility. GE traits can break down and trees revert to flowering. If total sterility is achieved transgenes can spread by asexual means, in soil bacteria, fungi and other organisms. There could be long-term impacts on soil biota and fertility. Trees that do not flower and fruit fail to provide food for organisms that feed on pollen, nectar, seed and fruit. Essential pollinating insects may thus become less available for horticulturalists, growers, beekeepers, and pasture grasses.

It is feasible NZ could see GE pines go feral. Ninety per cent of our plantation forests are pinus radiata which generate wilding pines that flourish in many soil types and altitudes. Wind-blown pine seeds readily take root and compete with native flora. With conventional pinus radiata seeds viable 'at least up to twenty-four years”[ii][ii] it is conceivable the seeds of transgenic wilding pines could be equally robust. Sing el al (1993)[iii][iii] found pollen from pine trees travelled over 600 kms. A failure rate of only a part of a per cent in a transgenic trait could allow transgenes in pollen to potentially contaminate trees at great distances.

Is farming GE crops more promising? Hear US farmers who planted GE crops on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEX654gN3c4&feature=plcp (24 minutes), Google for more and see FAQ on www.psgr.org.nz

[i][i] www.far.org.nz/index.php/media/entry/glyphosate-resistance-confirmed-in-new-zealand

[ii][ii] ‘The Fire Pines', Richard Warren and Alfred J Fordham, http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1040.pdf

[iii][iii] Singh et. al., ‘Pollen-Rain from Vegetation of Northwest India', New Physiologist, 72, 1993, pp. 191-206.

Jean Anderson, Otumoetai.