The biotechnology firm ArborGen has asked the USDA for permission to conduct 29 field trials of genetically engineered “cold tolerant” eucalyptus trees in the U.S. For the first time in history, this massive experiment, which is on the verge of being green-lighted, will literally be using nature as the laboratory to test more than 260,000 genetically engineered trees. Scientists across the U.S. are voicing concerns over this proposal.
As it did with GE alfalfa, USDA failed to conduct and prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to comprehensively address all the relevant issues related to the proposed eucalyptus field trials.
Scientists at Duke University in North Carolina have created pollen models that show tree pollen traveling from a forest in North Carolina for over 1,000 kilometers northward into eastern Canada. A study published in the New Physiologist found pine pollen 600 kilometers from the nearest pines. Scientists researching sterility in trees have admitted that 100 percent guaranteed sterility in GE trees is impossible. This evidence implies that if GE trees are released into the environment, widespread and irreversible contamination of native forests cannot be prevented.
Contamination of natural trees by GE eucalyptus could pose a severe environmental threat. Eucalyptus grow well in warm climates, so engineering them to tolerate cold temperatures removes the only barrier to their unrestricted spread. In some places where eucalyptus have been introduced, they are well known for escaping and colonizing native ecosystems. For example, eucalyptus is listed as an invasive species and a costly plant pest in California. The spread of these plants into the wild through seeds and plant matter is highly likely, and the impacts on native ecosystems from this invader are largely unknown. Additionally, one of the experimental GE tree varieties is a known host for cryptococcus gatti, a fatal fungal pathogen whose spores cause meningitis in people and animals.
Despite recent federal court decisions that USDA failed to address the risk of contamination and other environmental risks from genetically engineered plants, like GE bentgrass and alfalfa, USDA seems poised to push ahead with this dangerous proposal.
A public comment period is open until July 6th, 2009 – please send your comment to USDA APHIS opposing this risky proposal today!
For more information on genetically engineered trees, links to reports, and more, visit the Stop GE Trees Campaign, a project of the Global Justice Ecology Project
Filed under: GE Crops, Politics and Policy, Take Action
I absolutely despise these people who are messing with genetics! Who do they think they are??? Who do the people who make up the Government think they are giving the go ahead for genetic engineers to carry out these experiments where the rest of us may not want our families to suffer whatever heinous consequence may unfold?
Who gave them the right to tamper with natures’ delicately balanced and perfectly engineered works? Did the Government or any of these scientists ask any of the rest of the members of the human race what we wanted!??? They are self appointed and see them selves as little Gods. They obviously don’t even care about their own children or their Grand children or they would not be f**king around with their childrens’ futures.
They don’t know what the consequences are going to be! But lucky for them, they’ll have died of old age and left the rest of humanity to suffer the consequences.
It’s time we all got very angry!!!!!
Short-sighted experiments have wreaked havoc for years. The USDA appears to be pathetically blind to public good, much less public wishes. Why must we imperil our dwindling forests for a cold-tolerant eucalyptus? Why cold-tolerant eucalyptus in the first place? It’s actually important enough to have more eucalyptus that the tree must be genetically engineered to exist outside its habitat and risk the soil, water and surrounding flora? And it’s such an emergency to have this new source of eucalyptus that the USDA blesses the field trials without study. This is absurd. This experimentation without even an impact study by thed USDA continues the legacy of the last century: citizens are mere victims of corporate greed, the USDA is merely a corporate lacky. Thanks, USDA – nice job again.
Nature is God’s handiwork. Leave it alone so we can appreciate the beauty of nature.