One of the saddest results of modern farming in England in the last 50 years has been the grubbing out of hedgerows and little copses and ponds and the subsequent decline of many species of our flora and fauna. One rarely hears a skylark these days, for example.
However, they're coming back to the countryside in East Anglia -- due to genetically modified (GM) crops according to BBC radio this morning. As a former chemist I'm warier than most about chemical things. For example, I have never taken antibiotics for 40 years on the principle that I want them to work for me when I really need them. Therefore, I am considerably more sceptical of enthusaistic talk about GM than the average. Consequently, my ears cocked when I heard this. Apparently, the GM crops concerned (sugar beet) have been modified to be unsusceptible to weed-killer sprays. Because of this the farmers have been able to allow weeds to grow taller than otherwise before bopping them with spraying them. (Presumably, more weed seeds are given opportunity to germinate and show their heads.) With more natural weed seeds available, more skylarks have apparently been encouraged in the last few years. It's a win-win scenario apparently. I'm dubious about this. This trumpeting on the part of Monsanto may be pure propaganda. On the other hand, Monsanto might not have wanted to draw attention to this if it wasn't so. I don't know what to think at the moment. We need a lot more evidence, and over a longer time period, too. But I'd certainly like to hear a skylark again. Even in this part of the West Country, relatively rich in wild life compared with the Midlands where I was born, I have heard only one or two skylarks in the last ten years. Twenty years ago, butterflies largely disappeared from the Midlands. Fifteen years ago I was delighted to see them again when I moved down here, but since then they've been declining every year. On balance, I think environmentalists (and I write as a former activist) have gone rather too overboard about GM foods. The indiscriminate intermixing of genes between different species of plant life has been going on throughout millions of years of evolution, particularly within the large continental blocks. This was certainly accelerated in the last two centuries by plant collectors bringing back wild species from isolated ecological niches and then by subsequent interbreeding with the mainstream flora. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
