On 12/7/02 4:11 PM, in article ,
"Gordon Couger" wrote:
"Dean Hoffman" wrote in message
...
There's an article here about the fines levied against Prodigene for the
Nebraska mess.
http://www.yorknewstimes.com/stories...20702010.shtml
An earlier article said the farmer was told to pull the corn plants and
remove them. He didnšt do it. I wonder if Prodigene will sue the farmer
for his laziness.
Let's say the contamination wasn't detected. What could happen as far
as
health effects? How dangerous is this in the real world?
Probably it has no health cosciquecse at all. If it did get ground up into
the human food supply the concentration would be so low that no known poison
or allergen would have any effect. The problem is with public confidence.
Every step is on public trial and we can't afford foolish errors like this.
There is no reason that we can't raise a crop isolated from others of the
same kind. But you can't do it by following the pharm crop with a food crop
of the same thing.
You eat lot more rat turds in your bread than there would have been
pharicutial corn in the corn from that feild.
Gordon
I like your idea of growing the drug producing corn plants somewhere
else besides the Corn Belt. The yields might be less but who would care? We
get tornadoes and some pretty strong straight winds in eastern Nebraska. I
don't know how it would be possible to completely eliminate cross
pollination. The farmer with the regular crop would have no idea if his
field was cross pollinated. It would probably make no difference but would
it be worth it in this time of class action lawsuits?
Seed corn companies use isolation crops planted at the edges of their seed
fields. The isolation crops are destroyed after the field is pollinated.
The worst that would happen is their hybrid isn't pure.
Corn pollen isn't viable for too long a period but who knows when a good
wind will blow. Old timers say red dirt was blowing up here during the
Depression. That would've had to come from your area. I would think corn
pollen could travel farther.
People might be doing more potential harm to themselves by careless food
handling at home than anything else that happens in the food chain. Even
Ecoli wouldn't be a problem if food is cooked properly. It shouldn't get to
the grocery store in the first place though.
By the way, Okie State did good a couple weeks ago. It's always good to
hear OU got their butts kicked.
Dean
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