There is a pine tree in Sierra Club's logo, so the following news item is
very troubling to me:
The University of California, Davis, has been awarded a $14.8 million grant
through NIFA, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture program (this
is part of the US Dept. of Ag) to map the DNA sequence of pines.  "Using
fast-growing trees such as loblolly pine for fuels also can contribute to
carbon sequestration and may help mitigate the effects of climate change,"
USDA said.  According to Roger Beachy, the project, "will generate and use
genomics information to provide an understanding of genes and genetics in
conifers to help in developing new bioenergy sources."  (Roger Beachy is
currently president of the NIFA, developed the first GE tomato and served as
president of the Danford Plant Science Center in Saint Louis, which received
a founding gift of 40 acres and $50 million from Monsanto.) 
This means that pine trees may become a plantation crop.  Tree plantations
will, wherever planted, replace biodiversity and replace real forests.  This
will be done with pretence that biofuel is carbon neutral.  I don't want to
take time to argue that point at the moment - probably most of us realize
that true forests sequester far more carbon.  Right now I just want to say
that destruction of forests and the great biodiversity they represent will
greatly impoverish all of us who love and connect to the natural world.
Nature of course will still exist, but in a diminished form.  And the armies
of genetically altered pines which may occupy the place of old forests will
spread via seeds and pollen, not respecting the boundaries of national
forests and parks.
posted by Jim Diamond, M.D.



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