Back in May I noted a story that said that French researchers were trialling genetically modified vines outside.
Recently it was reported that the trial site had been vandalised. It turns out that they were testing some vines made to be more resistant to Grapevine Fanleaf virus (pdf information sheet from Western Australia here), which is a debilitating and non-curable disease found in many wine producing areas of the world.
The planting was destroyed, so it is a big setback for the evaluation of genetically modified vines.
With the challenges facing the human race, in terms of being able meet the demands for dramatic reductions in the use of pesticides while at the same time increasing the productivity of plants and their quality as well, there needs to be a considerable amount of well informed and robust debate about the role that GMOs may have in our futures.
As far as I can tell, at the moment any debate going on is neither well informed, nor robust: something I hope changes, and soon!
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hello glen with reference to your first paragraph..is there any particular reason why the trial site was vandalised and the plantings were destroyed...that might be a debatable topic...
ReplyDeleteMore than a few GMO trials have been vandalised by those organisations that feel it is too unsafe to have them out in the open - this has taken place in Lincoln as well.
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