Hello, >From Vandana Shiva's Biopiracy, 1997: "At the 1994 annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, researchers from Oregon State University reported on tests to evaluate a genetically engineered bacterium designed to convert crop waste into ethanol. "A typical root zone-inhabiting bacterium, Klebsiella planticola, was engineered with the novel ability to produce ethanol, and the engineered bacterium was added to enclosed soil chambers in which a wheat plant was growing. In one soil type, all the plants in soil with the engineered bacterium dies, while plants in untreated soil remained healthy. "In all cases, mycorrhizal fungi in the root system were reduced by more than half, which ruined nutrient uptake and plant growth. This result was unprecedented. Reduction in this vital fungus is known to result in plants that are less competitive with weeds or more susceptible to disease. In low organic matter sandy soil, the plants dies from ethanol produced by the engineered bacterium in the root system, while the high organic matter sandy or clay soil, changes in nematode density and species composition resulted in significantly decreased plant growth. The lead researcher, Dr. Elaine Ingham, concluded that these results imply that there can be significant and serious effects resulting from the addition of a genetically engineered micro-organism (GEM) to soil. The tests, using a new and comprehensive system, disproved earlier suggestions that there were no significant ecological effects. 25 25. Elaine Ingham and Michael Holmes, "A note on recent findings on genetic engineering and soil organisms," 1995. =-=-=-=-=- I thought that this may interest somebody out there. I found it pertinent to my ongoing study of agribusiness and genetic engineering as they relate to biofuel. - Dave _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel
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