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Escaped Golf-course Grass Frees Gene Genie In The US
New Scientist ^ | 8-9-2006 | Andy Coghlan

Posted on 08/09/2006 3:42:28 PM PDT by blam

Escaped golf-course grass frees gene genie in the US

09 August 2006

Andy Coghlan

A nondescript grass discovered in the Oregon countryside is hardly an alien invasion. Yet the plant - a genetically modified form of a grass commonly grown on golf courses - is worrying the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) enough that it is running its first full environmental impact assessment of a GM plant.

It is the first time a GM plant has escaped into the wild in the US, and it has managed it before securing USDA approval. The plant, creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera, carries a bacterial gene that makes it immune to the potent herbicide glyphosate, better known as Roundup. The manufacturer, The Scotts Company, Marysville, Ohio, is hoping the grass will provide a turf that makes it easier for golf course owners to manage their fairways and greens by letting them kill competing weedy grasses with glyphosate.

“It could prove extremely popular with the thousands of golf course managers in the US, making it easy for it to spread”Jay Reichman and colleagues at the US Environmental Protection Agency's labs in Corvallis, Oregon, identified nine escapees out of 20,400 plants of various grass varieties sampled within a 4.8-kilometre radius of the site where the bentgrass is being cultivated, the most distant 3.8 kilometres away. The team showed that the GM grass has spread both by pollinating non-GM plants to form hybrids, and by seed movement.

Bentgrass is a perennial, so once out there it regrows year after year, whereas most GM crops - mainly soybeans, maize and canola (oilseed rape) - are annuals, unable to reproduce, harvested each year and replaced with an entirely new crop the next. Another worry is that unlike the other GM crops. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: environment; escaped; free; gene; geneticallymodified; genie; gm; golf; golfcourse; grass; myopic; shortsighted; theskyisfalling; us
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To: taxcontrol

I want a pony.


21 posted on 08/09/2006 4:03:10 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Hardastarboard

What's wrong with grass made assault weapons? I WANT ONE!!!! ;-)


22 posted on 08/09/2006 4:04:05 PM PDT by Normal4me
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To: MonroeDNA
Oh no! Superior grass escapes!

The Law of Unintended Consequences isn't really something to laugh at, though ... and that's the real danger posed by GM "escapes."

Perhaps this one won't matter much ... though of course even this grass could cause problems down the road. But if nothing else, it shows how easy it would be for things actually to get out in the wild.

23 posted on 08/09/2006 4:07:03 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: blam

Trifids???


24 posted on 08/09/2006 4:08:53 PM PDT by Uriah_lost (http://www.wingercomics.com/d/20051205.html)
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To: taxcontrol

Green asphalt!


25 posted on 08/09/2006 4:15:03 PM PDT by Paladin2 (If the political indictment's from Fitz, the jury always acquits.)
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To: blam

Perhaps we should have creeping bentgrass face off against kudzu on the battlefield....


26 posted on 08/09/2006 4:22:14 PM PDT by prairie dog
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To: taxcontrol

27 posted on 08/09/2006 4:24:46 PM PDT by pageonetoo (You'll spot their posts soon enough!)
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To: blam
In Canada a few years ago a patented GM plant spread into a farmer's field and he had to pay the manufacturer for it.

What a product! It literally sells itself.

28 posted on 08/09/2006 4:27:52 PM PDT by mrsmith
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To: blam

That's a heck of a headline


29 posted on 08/09/2006 4:28:39 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Creation "science" has a final answer--adherence to the scriptures. All other data are discarded.)
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To: blam

Is it just me that sees this as a REALLY BIG DEAL!?!?!?


30 posted on 08/09/2006 4:30:11 PM PDT by Mariner
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To: prairie dog
"Perhaps we should have creeping bentgrass face off against kudzu on the battlefield...."

No contest. One nice summer and the bentgrass is history.

31 posted on 08/09/2006 4:30:40 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: blam

It was a hybrid. A cross of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about it is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus.


32 posted on 08/09/2006 4:32:26 PM PDT by Feiny (drunk, crazy and naked streaking isn't something that can be considered a normal, fun thing)
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To: Hardastarboard

>>>>"A lawn that won't die?"<<<<

I call BS, I can kill any lawn! (even when I'm not even at home)

TT


33 posted on 08/09/2006 4:34:14 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: pageonetoo

That is my kinda lawn!
TT


34 posted on 08/09/2006 4:35:37 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: r9etb
Perhaps this one won't matter much ... though of course even this grass could cause problems down the road.

I wouldn't want to see it invade farmland.

There are other herbicides which would probably control it (IIRC Atrazine, Princep). It could still be a pain.

35 posted on 08/09/2006 4:37:47 PM PDT by holymoly ("A lot" is TWO words.)
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To: r9etb
>>>>"The Law of Unintended Consequences isn't really something to laugh at"<<<<

I do believe that is what may have killed Mastodons, Giant Sloths and Elephants in North America and created the Great Plains... ahhh the good old days before global warming

TT
36 posted on 08/09/2006 4:41:17 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: TexasTransplant
I live near harpers Ferry, and was gong to a garage sale one day, nearby. As I drove past, I noticed one fine looking yard, with nary a blade of grass or a leaf. There was an old woman raking the rocks back into place. I stopped to talk.

She said she did it after her husband died. She can blow away the leaves, and play with the rocks at her leisure!

37 posted on 08/09/2006 4:42:33 PM PDT by pageonetoo (You'll spot their posts soon enough!)
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To: TexasTransplant

As an ardent fan of golf who abuses his share of the turf this sounds great!


38 posted on 08/09/2006 4:46:43 PM PDT by ChiMark
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To: quark

LOL!


39 posted on 08/09/2006 4:46:53 PM PDT by Doomonyou (Moderate Bumper Sticker: Bush Lied, Terrorists Died!)
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To: blam

Last week this was a wilderness area.

40 posted on 08/09/2006 4:51:18 PM PDT by Doomonyou (Moderate Bumper Sticker: Bush Lied, Terrorists Died!)
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