Danish researchers announced that they have bred a plant that is capable of detecting landmines. The leaves of the genetically engineered plant turn red when the roots of the plant encounter explosives.
Now this is going to be a bit of an ethical dilemma for the rabid "anti-genetic engineering" crowd. Many of them are also members of the peace movement. Are they going to oppose the introduction of a plant that will save hundreds of thousands from preventable death and maiming?
If they oppose it then they are showing a disregard for the sanctity of life and safety of a significant percentage of the third world population. If not then they have fundamentally compromised their blanket opposition to genetically engineered plants.
Oh the hand wringing and angst. The high moral ground can be so slippery at times.
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I have a wee bit of experience with GM crops ... and I don't like the *potential* for disaster they represent.
The "land mine detector" plant sounds innocous enough, on the surface. But think it thru. What could go wrong with such an effort?
I assume we're not gonna eat these plants, so there's no direct danger of poisoning. And it's not too likely that a large herbivore will eat them, either, what with there being land mines about. Boom! But they will have to be planted pretty thickly - otherwise, what's the point?
Bugs *will* eat them. They'll also die and decay, placing the mutated genes into the soil for the bacteria to feast up. What happens if the new genetic material decimates a particluar insect population? No rice harvest? What other native species could cross-pollinate? Would we eradicate the species when all the land mines were discovered and removed? If not, then what effect would those have on the local ecosystem?
Or, if the new plants aren't particularly tasty to bugs, and nothing eats them, will you gnerate a kudzu-like epidemic? Visit the American South to see the effects of that...
Are these scenerios that far-fetched? How big a problem are cane toads where you're at? How about rabbits? We don't exactly have a sterling record when it comes to enviromental manipulation, and now we're seriously discussing manipulating the enviroment on a genetic level?!
It's a horror to see a child minus a limb (or dead) because of the wars of the past century. What about the horror of mass famine caused by an enviromental catastrophe?
I'm not one of the wacko's who opposes all reasearch on genetics , etc. I'm just a farmer who's livelihood depends on the graciousness of Mother Earth, and I am loath to release what are essentially experiments (as there cannot be a serious testing regimen for these products: too many variables) into the wild. I truely believe, with Benjamin Franklin, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
But you're right about one thing: there's a ethical dilemnia here. Human beings have a bad habit of seeing the immediate effects and ignoring the long term ones of any action. This led to the land mine problem in the first place - let's not let that same shortsightedness lead to an even greater problem down the road.
Caution is a virtue.
Be well,
Dave H.
All I want to know is who is going to get out there in a suspected mine field, cultivate the soil and sow the seeds of this plant? I think a rake or any other cultivator would become the mine detector long before the seeds ever took root.
Posted by: Clarence at January 29, 2004 07:19 PMI would imagine they would sow the seeds from a airplane or helicopter.
Posted by: Jonathan at January 30, 2004 12:49 AMClarence said exactly what I was thinking. Jonathon - it's not nearly as humourous to think of it your way.
Posted by: Gail/Drama at January 31, 2004 12:31 PM
Stumble It!