Re: That *gene* thang again......
Randall, Rod wrote:
>
> I don't know about the rest of you folks but it kinda
> takes the heart out of gardening for me to see biotechnology
> (good or bad) developing new flowers, colours, fragrances
> etc to order.
>
> Taken to an extreme you could theoretically place an
> order for a custom made garden plant sourced from a laboratory
> in some industrial estate.
>
> I feel gardeners would be better served by sticking to the
> good old fashioned plant breeding methods, retaining some of
> the mystery and thrill in gardening.
>
> Not much fun in a new colour or fragrance when its originally sourced from
> a lab supplies manual instead of some exotic hidden valley in China eh ???
>
> Nature is far more mysterious!
>
Rod
I can see these "artificial" flowers being of most interest not to "real
" gardeners but to the florists. A lot of florist flowers are already
highly artificial in my opinion even without GE and the majority of
serious gardeners, other than cutflower growers, would not make use of
them anyway.
We should I suppose be thankful to find someone manipulating genes who
is not trying to interfere with our food supply. Even the genes they are
transferring, colour ones for instance, seem as if they are unlikely to
create serious environmental problems.
Moira
>
> > Hello all Medits -
> >
> > Considering the recent controversy, thought you might be interested in
> > this
> > excerpt which just arrived in my mailbox today, this one about flowers
> > versus
> > food:
> >
> > * Florigene, a flower biotechnology company in Victoria, Australia,
> > introduced violet carnation Moonshadow last week. It's the first in a
> > range of new flowers containing the company's patented blue gene
> > taken from petunias.
> > Best to all, C. Carter
> > Martinez, CA USA (an avid propagator)
> >
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
