Friday, April 26, 2013

GE Trees May Be Even More Damaging to the Environment than GE Foods April 27, 2013 | 6,480 views | + Add to Favorites



             GE Trees May Be Even More Damaging to the Environment than GE Foods

April 27, 2013 | 6,480 views | + Add to Favorites             


Story at-a-glance

  • The documentary A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees discusses how genetically engineered (GE) trees may adversely impact ecological systems on a grand scale, with potentially catastrophic effects
  • Trees are being genetically altered to give them unnatural characteristics, such as the ability to kill insects, tolerate toxic herbicides, grow abnormally fast, or have decreased lignin for the convenience of the paper industry
  • Genetically engineered trees vastly differ from annual GE crops like corn and soybeans because trees can live for decades and even centuries in the wild; once GE trees escape the confines of their plantation, they are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate
  • Many trees are able to spread their seeds and pollen for hundreds and even thousands of miles, making native forests vulnerable to cross-contamination, which poses an enormous threat to worldwide ecosystems
  • The biotech industry and US government are rushing ahead without performing appropriate safety studies, doing everything they can to hasten the approval of GE technology while silencing the opposition

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