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Scientists are inserting alien patented genes into trees in the same way that they are genetically engineering agricultural crops. Trees, which have long life cycles and grow in intricate ecosystems, are in the earliest stages of attempted domestication. There are four main traits scientists are attempting to engineer into trees: herbicide tolerance (to glyphosate based herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup), insecticide production (the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensus, or Bt toxin), reduced lignin content, and sterility (Terminator trees).
Genetically engineered trees will be engineered with multiple stacked traits inserted into them from the above four to: stress tolerance (to salty soils, low or high
temperatures, wet or dry conditions, and toxic soils), disease or virus resistance, altered day length perception (so they can be grown in areas of the planet they naturally could never grow in), decreased branching, altered ripening characteristics and production of pharmaceutical drugsmor industrial chemicals.
Planting genetically engineered (GE) trees poses potentially devastating environmental risks.
The biggest threat from GE trees, as with any GE organism released into the environment, is the transfer of their alien patented genes to other organisms through cross-pollination, with completely unpredictable results. Forests are among Earthâs most complex, extraordinary and least
understood ecosystems. More than half of the worldâs species live in and depend on forests for their survival. Yet very little is known about how trees interact with myriad other species. The introduction of foreign genes into any organism can cause unintended negative environmental side effects for ecosystems. The unintended contamination of our forest
ecosystems with patented genes will leave us only two options to deal with this genetic pollution, both of which are unacceptable.
The first option is to have the offending corporation clean up their pollution via logging and removing the contaminated trees. This could mean that private
landowners, national parks, wildernesses, national forests, and other publicly owned forests will see increased logging and roadbuilding further degrading habitat and water quality. The second option is to do
nothing and leave the pollution in the environment to spread further, forever altering the genetic makeup of our forested ecosystems.
The release of genetically engineered (GE) agricultural crops has raised critical concerns about potential harmful effects on non-target species and
ecosystems. For example, GE insect-resistant maize engineered to produce Bt toxin has been reported to harm monarch butterflies and other non-target species. If Bt toxin-producing GE trees were released into the environment, countless living organisms would be exposed to this toxin for years, even decades, with unpredictable consequences. The Bt toxin exuding from the roots of the trees will disrupt the soil food
web in negative ways. These GE trees might also transfer the Bt toxin to wild trees, thereby perpetuating the toxinâs production in ecosystems.
Pollen from pines, a tree genetic scientists are engineering, is known to travel over very long distances to fertilise other trees, thus
transferring genes. Aware of the problems of genetic pollution, the Biotech industry often claims that engineering tree sterility is a solution that will prevent gene flow to wild trees. But engineering
persistent sterility has proven very difficult, and in fact such research constitutes only a tiny fraction of GE tree research. If engineered sterility is achieved a fundamental problem arises with the lack of
production of any seeds, pollen, fruit, flowers, or cones as these are the food sources for thousands of species of birds, insects and animals.
Furthermore, trees encounter many stresses over their life spans, such as changing climatic conditions. Such stressors have been shown to silence alien genes. For example, in an experiment with plum trees, researchers
found that engineered resistance to viruses worked successfully in the first year, but not in the second year. This same trend could affect trees engineered for sterility. Supposedly GE-sterile trees could silence the inserted genes and revert to fertility at any time, passing on the genes from the other inserted stacked traits into wild populations.
The largest GE tree research programme, called ArborGen, is a joint venture. It includes International Paper, the worldâs largest forest and
paper company, and Fletcher Challenge Forests (part of New Zealandâs largest industrial company, Fletcher Challenge Limited). It also includes Westvaco, another large US multinational forest products company, and
Genesis Research and Development, a New Zealand-based biotechnology firm. This 60 million-dollar joint venture was signed in 1999.
Action for Social and Ecological Justice (ASEJ)
Rainforest Action Network
North West Resistance to Genetic Engineering (NW Rage)
Forest Ethics
Dogwood Aliance
Institute for Social Ecology, Biotechnology Project
Genetic Engineering Action Network (GEAN)
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