Accidente! GM wines!

The article is baseless hyperbole IMO. The author doesn't understand the distinction between _sequencing_ a genome and successfully modifying it.

Mark Lipton

Mayhaps, but I think - if they can splice bacillus thurengis dna into corn (maize) to keep down insect damage, and damn the flavor... There are lots of vinyard pests....

Bacillus thuringensis is a naturally occuring soil bacterium that produces pesticidal toxins. Once in the gut of an insect larva, the bacteria produce crystalline toxins that eventually cause the gut to become fatally paralyzed. A gene from B thuringiensis was inserted into US maize plants in 1995, to produce genetically modified maize with built-in resistance to the European corn-borer.

In the Seventies, I used Bt on my organic farm to deter caterpillars and various leaf-eating pests. It was one of the few alternatives available to petro-chemical-based pesticides. However, for it to be effective it had to be sprayed on plants when there was no rain expected. Otherwise, it would wash off and break down before it could be ingested by the pests. That's a lot different than splicing Bt DNA directly into the maize gene pool.

Closer to home (and I mean REALLY close -- like 15 miles away) Chateau Ste. Michelle has been experimenting with genetically modified grapes.

There was a lengthy article by Andrew Pollack in the July 13, 2001 New York Times regarding GM grapes . I have the whole article saved, but the only version I can find online, this link, is mising the entire second half of the story:

Leave it to a tobacco company to screw with wine. Just one more reason I boycott Ste. Michelle and its subsidiaries. Give 'em enough time and drinking wine will eventually cause lung cancer. ;)

In 2004, I believe Mendocino Country successfully banned GM crops.

Okay, that's enough. Back to drinking now.

JJ

I may be mistaken, but I think that is no longer the case.

Andy

I'm surprised by what you say. The entire article is freely available on nytimes.com, I just read it.

Now you're talking. Cheers!

agreed.

I tried to find it there, bur didn't have any luck. Can you post the link?

Likewise!

JJ

Sure. It is too long originally, so I ran it through tiny Url:

If you make a search on nytimes.com for "genetically grapes pollack", it is the only result.