Brucie, I agree that on some things (probably quite a few things), people don't know enough. How far pollen spreads from plants, how easy some plants can interbreed. I totally agree that we need research on that. The thing is, if we assume that experimental crops are potentially hazardous to the environment, this research should have happened about 200 years ago when Britain invented intensive agriculture. ;-) After all, some of the thoroughly unnatural cross-breeds achieved in the lab through "traditional" techniques (which basically involves cross-breeding a zillion strains until random chance gives the particular genetic mutation or mixture you want) could equally well be a problem waiting to happen. That the research didn't get done until GM crops came along is a major failing. Pollen spread is a good example - the research done during the GM field trials showed pollen spread an order of magnitude further than previous theories for oilseed rape (canola).

By all means, check this out for several generations of plants under heavy test conditions, and see what the results are. I don't agree that not knowing the results of the tests is a reason not to try it, though. If we knew what the results would be, we wouldn't need to do the tests! ;-) But the lab research suggests that things aren't going to go haywire. I absolutely agree that we need as much labwork as possible before field trials, but at some point things have to come out of the lab and be tried in the real world. There's no reason why GM crops should be any different from any other field (sorry! ;-) of science in that respect.

Dianavan, I know that Monsanto are a thoroughly nasty bunch, or at least that the moral-free sods who picked on that farmer are. Maybe that poor guy's example is a reason for a new law on what constitutes theft with regards ownership of a particular breed of plant - after all, laws don't usually get changed until there's some obvious miscarriage of justice. I don't think this is a reason to rule out GM crops though - it's a problem with a specific company and not with the crops themselves. Henry Ford was an exploitative, racist, anti-semitic piece of crap, but that wasn't a reason to ban the motor car. ;-)

Graham.