Sat, 10 Apr 2004

Opponents Take Swing at GMO Grass

There's a lot of brain-growing going on today ... even the forest service is getting into the act!

I just love the excuse the company uses to explain why this grass won't become "a golf course gone berserk -- a state park, for example, blanketed in acres of perfect putting green turf, with no biodiversity."

Harriman, Scotts' chief research scientist, counters that numerous studies by the company indicate the grass is unlikely to spread. The grass seeds are dispersed by flowering blossoms -- but the closely shorn turf on a golf course is never allowed to grow tall enough to flower.

No golf course, anywhere, has ever allowed their grass to grow too tall, eh? We know that every mowing, at every golf course, is always on time and to the correct specifications! After all, humans are perfect, aren't they?

But you gotta love the potential irony here: in the worst case scenerio, the agricultural production of the greatest growing nation on Earth could be destroyed so golfers would have better putting greens...

Lawn-products company Scotts is testing a bioengineered version of a creeping grass favored by golf courses. The company claims the Roundup-resistant grass is unlikely to spread, but a surprising assortment of challengers disagree.

(link) [Wired News]

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