GM Farm Scale Trials

Excellent article at Spiked Online regarding the Farm Scale testing of Genetically Modified food crops. Couple of good points: bq. GM technology is simply another tool for plant breeding and bq. Meanwhile, back on the organic farm, the 'organic horse' bolted long before 'stable doors' had been invented: organic farmers use old-fashioned herbicides that, because they are less specific in their toxicity, are rather poisonous beyond their intended victims, the weeds. Yet they are in use, because their adoption preceded the regulations now required for approval of modern herbicides. This is one thing that gets me whenever I read about Organic Farming. Some of the chemicals allowed in Organic Farming are very toxic but because they come directly from natuaral sources, they are considered "Organic" and therefore OK to use. Rotenone insecticide is one example of this. Any runoff is deadly to fish and it is a very broad-spectrum insecticide so you wind up knocking out your beneficial insect population too. But it's "Organic" Ryania, Pyrethrin, Sabadilia, Quassia - these are all OK to use for Organic Farming because of their plant-based origin but they are very toxic and broad-spectrum.