"JS" wrote in message
om...
Wasn't the cherry variety Compact Stella obtained by irradiating
scions of the variety Stella? I suppose that because this used the
genectic modification techniques of thirty years ago, it's OK.
Certainly I've never heard of people destroying orchards containing
this variety.

I think there is a difference here. Inducing genetic mutations by
irradiation is mimicking the natural process of random mutation/evolution -
many natural mutations are formed by natural background irradiation.

Transgenic plants are different beasts (to coin a phrase!) in that genes
from one species are spliced into the DNA of white different species. There
are more fundamental issues involved.

pk