snip
Sweetcorn has to be the most dangerous plant to try GM on and is an
indication of the stupidity of the scientists/bean counters involved.
With sterility there is no chance of a cross escaping into the real
world.
The thought that it may be my plant that contaminates the world is
horrendous.

Only in the Americas, where wild relatives of maize exist. In the "real
world" outside there's less of a danger.

I'd say oilseed rape/canola is more of a problem, at least more widespread
as it has natural wild relatives almost everywhere, and in fact has spawned
"superweeds" in some
places.[http://www.newscientist.com/hottopic...?id=ns99991882]
Although these superweeds often do less well than the wild varieties, as
producing insecticide resistence costs energy which could otherwise be used
to grow/reproduce more. Still it's a difficult subject with little
conclusive evidence on both sides.

Have you heard of the Terminator gene for stopping the next generation's
growth? And the new "Excorcist" technology?

Just a question to put things in a bit of perspective. There are thousands
of different sorts of plants all growing together "out there".
What's the rate of natural gene transfer between them? Do you know of any
cases, especially any that
may have been damaging ? I don't but I'm not an expert. I'm sure somebody
must know.
You don't suddenly see a clematis developing rose thorns in your garden
very often, despite them growing very close to each other and almost
certainly get lots of each-other's pollen.

I guess it all comes down to a knee-jerk reaction (in either direction) in
the end at the moment.
Tim.