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Doug Ralston

Horrible golf menace to society!?
« on: August 17, 2006, 03:56:13 PM »
Did you see this?:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060817/ap_on_sc/engineered_grass

Our pleasure is the World's disaster? Architects of destruction? OMG

Marty Bonnar

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2006, 04:04:09 PM »
Doug,
you can calm down. We've been 'engineering' plant species since the dawn of time. It's sometimes known by another name: agriculture.
This is a rather pathetic attempt at scaremongering. Check out Glyphosate at your leisure...

FBD.
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

Doug Ralston

Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2006, 04:07:42 PM »
Thought my facetiousness was way too blatant, but was certain if i would be more subtle someone would think me serious ........ *stare* Martin

Marty Bonnar

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2006, 04:14:03 PM »
Nice one, D.R. ;),
it always cracks me up when the 'antis' quote 'scientific facts' to back up a case.

Once upon a time, tulips were worth more than gold... ;D

FBD.
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

Garland Bayley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #4 on: August 17, 2006, 05:27:22 PM »
Doug,
you can calm down. We've been 'engineering' plant species since the dawn of time. It's sometimes known by another name: agriculture.
This is a rather pathetic attempt at scaremongering. Check out Glyphosate at your leisure...

FBD.

Martin,

Bioligical crosses between compatible species is vastly different than plant variations created through gene splicing.

All the biological crosses in the history of the world in the most diverse flowering plant in the world did not create glow in the dark orchids. However, splice in a gene from a firefly and voila!


"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

Doug Sobieski

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #5 on: August 17, 2006, 08:44:08 PM »
Speaking of engineering plant species, let's not forget that George Thomas was more famous for his efforts hybridizing roses than as a golf course architect. (I thought I'd tie this more closely to architecture :) )

And of course one of the most famous attempts at biotechnology, tomacco.  

Wayne_Kozun

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #6 on: August 17, 2006, 10:47:13 PM »
Didn't Carl Spackler do this genetic engineering in Caddyshack decades ago?

Quote
This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff. Here, I've got pounds of this.

Doug Siebert

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Horrible golf menace to society!?
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2006, 12:42:56 AM »
There is a menace here, but it isn't what they are saying it is.

Monsanto has developed Roundup resistance strains of various crops, and they require farmers who purchase them to sign a contract stating they won't seed from the stock they grow (i.e., if they grow corn they won't use some of that corn to replant next year)  This essentially requires farmers who buy into this to buy from Monsanto every season, instead of seeding from their stock each year as is the common practice.

There was a case in Canada a few years ago where Monsanto sued a farmer for patent infringement who was caught with Roundup resistant canola (rapeseed for you UK folks) in his fields -- it was just a portion of his crop, that he said had got there because the seeds arrived there via wind blowing them from neighboring fields or grain trucks loaded with the harvest from other fields driving by his field.  Monsanto's lawyers said it didn't matter how the seed had got there, that it was his responsibility to remove their intellectual property from his field!  After years of litigation going all the way to Canada's highest court, it ended up as something of a draw, the court upheld Monsanto's patent rights and ability to enforce them, even though Monsanto had no control how the wind may disperse them to other fields, but said that he didn't have to pay Monsanto licensing fees for the seeds that landed on his field.  But he spent a couple hundred thousand dollars in legal fees to defend himself.

So the homeowners adjacent courses with that creeping bent grass better watch out that Monsanto doesn't sue them if it "creeps" onto their lawns someday :)
My hovercraft is full of eels.