TURF SECTOR WANTS SOFTER RULES ON GENETICALLY-MODIFIED GRASS SEED
The prohibition of the development and release of genetically-modified grass seed is ”an impasse that should be broken”, Lindum Turf managing director Stephen Fell told the BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition (BTME) show.
He said that fluctuations in rainfall and temperature combined with political and economic pressures meant future varieties would require greater durability and disease resistance and lower maintenance requirements than those currently available.
Oregon Department of Agriculture (USA) demands eradication of escaped GE bentgrass
COBA PRESSES SCOTTS FOR BENTGRASS PLAN
SALEM -- Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba has asked The Scotts Co. and USDA to reveal their plans for eradicating genetically modified bentgrass that escaped several years ago from Idaho trials sites into Eastern Oregon.
Coba in letters dated Jan. 5 wrote that the ODA ”is very concerned about glyphosate-tolerant creeping bentgrass in Malheur County, Ore.”
Agencies refused to publicize spread of biotech bentgrass
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- The Oregon Department of Agriculture and the USDA refused to alert the public that genetically modified bentgrass had spread from a test plot in Western Idaho to irrigation ditches in Eastern Oregon.
Carol Mallory-Smith, an Oregon State University weed scientist, made the discovery last month after she received samples from farmers in Malhuer County. The Roundup-resistant creeping bentgrass, under development by The Scott's Co., isn't approved for unrestricted commercial production.
Escaped bentgrass sounds a warning ....
Editorial: Escaped bentgrass sounds a warning Genetically modified for golf courses, it won't stay put.
Published: August 22, 2006
BEYOND THE BUFFERS
"It's a cautionary tale of what could happen with other [transgenic]
plants that could be of greater concern. I suspect that more examples
of this will show up."
Jay Reichman, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who led the search
for escaped bentgrass.
You don't have to be a grass-seed producer in central Oregon to be
alarmed by last week's news that genetically modified bentgrass has
Grass Created in Lab Is Found in the Wild
By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: August 16, 2006
An unapproved type of genetically engineered grass has been found growing in the wild in what scientists say could be the first instance in the United States in which a biotechnology plant has established itself outside a farm.
Ecologists at the Environmental Protection Agency said they had found a small number of the grass plants growing in central Oregon near the site of field tests that took place a few years ago.
