Why GMO Trees Will Destroy Forest Biodiversity & Life on Earth

If you have wondered what GMO forests will do to the planet, and if they have anything in common with GMO food crops, you are likely to be flummoxed by the plans of the plutocracy to take all of the ‘natural’ out of nature.

Our forests provide an extremely high level of biodiversity, and the destruction of the Amazon forests in recent years has eradicated estimated thousands of life-giving plants and herbs, not to mention diverse animal species. Over 90% of Amazonian plants, for example, have not yet been studied by western science, but have been used by natives for thousands of years to teat a multitude of ailments.

‘Transgenic’ trees are touted as:

• A means to increase productivity, including the increase of wood fibers and wood pellets needed for paper production.
• Restore certain diseased or damaged tree species, by transferring a gene from a Chinese chestnut tree to a decimated American chestnut.
• A means for toxic cleanup and bioremediation that will help to remove heavy metals, and reduce contaminated soils.

However:

• Fast growing, non-GMO trees are not looked to as a resource. Bamboo, for example, is fast-growing and is a huge carbon sink.
• The level of disease in GMO-planted forests is not yet determined, and since GMO crops have led to super bugs and weed-resistant super-weeds, assuming that GMO forests would be any different is purely ignorant.

The Importance of (Real) Trees, Forests, and Nature

The biological diversity in forests is unprecedented, and still little understood by mainstream science. Trees perform multiple ecological roles, but they also provide shelter for thousands of other plants that do not grow well on an open-range or without the shade of trees.

Aside from this, varying tree varieties (there are over 600 in the US alone, and thousands throughout the world) provide a home for many creatures. Animals, micro-organisms, and various plant species rely on the ecosystem which trees help to provide for their very lives. Genetic diversity is absolutely essential to the health of our forests.

There are thousands of complex genetic interactions between trees, plant species, insects, and fungi that cannot happen if we homogenize the forests, let alone genetically alter them. Ecosystems cannot function with a hybridized, genetically made version of Mother Nature.

It is ludicrous for scientists to suggest that replanting large swaths of land with ‘faster-growing’ but asexual trees is a good idea. The USDA is currently considering uprooting thousands of native pine tress to plant a variety of GMO eucalyptus that cannot reproduce.

If International Paper Co. and MeadWestvaco Corp. get their way, the entire Southeastern United States will be transformed into one big GMO tree plantation. Just as Monsanto and GMO food crop companies marketed millions of suicide seeds before truly understanding their long-term effects on health, which are all but completely deleterious, lumber companies will attempt to plant GMO trees in order to control the forests and ensure dominance in an increasingly competitive market.

This is similar to the plans for GMO corn to provide ethanol for fuel, but without any consideration for the fact that the GMO varieties can easily cross-pollinate food crops and destroy a viable food source for the world.

It also means that trees will now be owned as a patented product which only lumber and energy companies will hold the right to own, and therefore, plant. All seeds we purchase in the future to maintain forests must then be purchased by those who have ruined the natural ecosystems of this planet.

“Syngenta developed Enogen to tap into the growing demand for ethanol; about 40% of US corn production goes to make ethanol.

The problem is that Enogen could mix with corn grown for food and break down its starches, which would lead to crumbly corn chips and soggy cereals and corn bread.

‘This will ruin corn for milling,’ says Clarkson, who sells non-GMO and organic corn to food processors and millers. ‘The ethanol industry is happy but other industries are seriously undermined by this corn.’ (The Organic and Non-GMO Report)”

Dangers of GMO’ing All of Nature

Whether it is food crops, fuel crops, or now, our forests, GMO is a haphazard and money-grabbing tactic for corporate interests to continue their aggressive and life-killing habits of ruining human, animal and plant health.

While GMO seeding of forests in the world is not new, it is finding support via our biotech-infiltrated USDA and EPA in the United States. They are already in Brazil as a source of biomass (supposedly to reduce fossil fuel-emissions) and elsewhere throughout the world, including Portugal, New Zealand, China, Chile, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, and Uruguay.

Of the 205 permit applications listed at the end of 2003 for GMO trees, 73.5% originated in the USA. A whopping 32% of the permits were asked for based on herbicide tolerance. Who is the biggest maker of herbicides? There are ten big ones in the world, but Monsanto is at the top of the list, even though regulators of these chemicals knew they would cause birth defects when used.

“Transgenic trees offer potential solutions to a number of forestry problems, yet the regulatory history for these trees in the United States is very short, explains RFF scholar Roger Sedjo in his new report, Genetically Engineered Trees: Promise and Concerns. The report focuses on the implementation of the Plant Protection Act and related regulations as the Act has been applied to transgenic trees.

Timber sources in the United States and throughout the world have evolved in recent decades, so that by the end of the 20th century, plantation forests accounted for about one-third of harvested industrial wood globally. (rff.org)”

Explained eloquently in this documentary entitled, The Silent Forest, that won first place in the EarthVision Environmental Film Festival and also First Place in the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film divisions, we can see how GMO is affecting people and animals on the planet from multiple angles. GMO forests are just the latest whack job timber industry joining the biotech game.