Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
Page 65
Page 66
Page 67
Page 68
JUNE 2016 SEEDWORLD.COM 35 For a catalog call 303.431.7333 salesapplewoodseed.com applewoodseed.com Seeds of Wildflowers Garden Flowers Since 1965 Regional Special Use Custom Mixtures Hundreds of Species in Stock We havent tested any genes associated with yield Folta says. When people say they havent improved yield well theyre not supposed to. He says the technology to improve yield is available but American growers dont have a need for improved yields and he blames misguided activists for keeping those crops from developing countries that could use them. He points to cassava crops that feed 1 billion people that have been devastated by viruses. You cant give away a crop that will help someone in the developing world because of activist pushback Folta says. We have a disease-resistant version that could go in tomorrow it could have been in years ago. SAFETY Michael Hansen Hansen believes safety standards for GMOs are simply too lax in the United States where he says there is no requirement to prove a new plant is safe. This is a new technology. There should be required safety assessments before the products are allowed into the market as is required in Europe and most other developed countries he says. A recent Pew survey found 88 percent of the sci- entists surveyed believe that GMOs are generally safe to eat. Thats just like asking the question are food additives generally safe or unsafe to eat Unless you do specific tests on a par- ticular food additive you dont know if its safe. Thats the same with GE foods. You say there hasnt been any evidence that GE foods have had negative health effects. How would you know who is getting sick since without labeling you have no idea who is exposed and who is not exposed or the relative levels of exposure he adds. Hansen also says there are questions about whether GE crops are linked to the significant increases in food allergies during the past 20 years but no strong studies have been done to prove or disprove that theory. Mischa Popoff Popoff says the lack of safety testing is something thats both- ered him. The anti-GMO people are right about one thing and its pretty big. There was no safety testing. There are no safety issues but there was no safety testing up front he says. Still he adds that the chance of a GMO causing sickness or death is not worth increasing the cost of bringing a new crop to market which already stands in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Something could happen but its so remote as to be incon- sequential Popoff says. The organic activist the anti-GMO people are correct in principle but does that mean you want to start testing GMO crops Do we want to double the cost of bringing them to market For what Kevin Folta The genes used to alter GMO plants are already found in nature and companies are assessing risks from the time an idea is conceived Folta says. The processes are just too thorough for there to be concern over safety. There has not been one single case of a health problem in humans or other animals based on foods derived from these plants. That says a lot. Thats a 20-year track record Folta says. We understand a lot about the biology and we only put in genes that we understand very well. You can really come up with a pretty fair assessment. All of these are genes are somewhere in nature already so we know their relative risks. Plus he adds the companies developing GMOs only lose if their products arent safe. Companies make no money if they poison their consumers he says. SUSTAINABILITY Michael Hansen Glyphosate by far the most widely used herbicide in the world was once considered benign but Hansen says there is growing concern about its toxicity. Its in the air its in the groundwater its in many streams and since were increasingly spraying more and more crops with it there is going to be more residue on the foods that we eat he says. And last year the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC concluded glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. He points to glyphosate-resistant weeds and insects becom- ing resistant to Bt crops as the beginning of a growing problem