Preliminary tests revealed that the grass, an altered form of Bermuda grass known as Tifton 85, had mysteriously begun producing cyanide gas. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are conducting further tests to determine if some sort of mutation caused the grass to suddenly begin giving off the deadly gas.
[snip]
Abel told CBS that he’d been using the modified grass for about fifteen years with no problems, until now. And he’s not the only one with a suddenly toxic pasture. Other farmers in the area who use the same modified grass have also found cyanide on their properties, though as yet no other cattle have died. Genetically modified crops have long been used to feed both humans and farm-raised animals. In recent years, however, activists concerned about potentially detrimental health impacts from GMOs have begun pushing for increased regulation and labeling of food products that contain modified crops. In California, voters will decide in November on a ballot measure that would require companies to label all foods containing GMOs. Such a law would be the first of its kind in the nation.
3 comments:
I've driven through the countryside around Elgin, TX. It's Texas farmland as ordinary-looking as you'd ever hope to see. It doesn't glow in the dark or anything. And yet the grass apparently generates cyanide. Jeebus on a pogo stick!
Please note that Tifton 85 is not what we usually think of as a GMO... no exotic cross-species gene splicing or such. It's a hybrid of a hybrid, "scientifically modified" (??!?!), if I understand correctly. Creating new varieties by simple hybridization has been done for a millennium or so at least. Which means that a possibly very ordinary process, fifteen years later, yielded a toxic plant. I'd have to bet on an additional factor, perhaps a new mutation... maybe related to the original hybridizing process, maybe to the "scientific modification," maybe not. Maybe it's something to do with all those damned chemicals they spread and spray on crops these days.
In any case, they might just want to take this one off the market for the moment...
(I linked you in a post on this on my blog.)
Good to know. This is so bizarre, I hope we'll find out what happened and not be left asking questions.... (Aliens, obviously)....
Post a Comment