Well actually I am a citizen of the US, and live in the good old USA. I agree it would be a shame if Australia lost such a species, but wouldn't it be a shame if the it was lost to the world?

Can gentically engineered foods help feed the hungry? Are anti-GMO activists and over-zealous environmentalists standing in the way of the hungry being fed? The hope that GMO foods might bring solutions to malnutrition and world hunger was never more dramatically illustrated than when Time magazine ran a cover story titled "Grains of Hope." The article joyfully announced the development of a genetically engineered "golden rice." This new strain of GM rice has genes from viruses and daffodils spliced into its genetic instructions. The result is a form of rice that is a golden-yellow color (much like daffodil flowers), and that produces beta-carotene, which the human body normally converts into Vitamin A. Nearly a million children die every year because they are weakened by Vitamin A deficiencies and an additional 350,000 go blind. Golden rice, said Time, will be a godsend for the half of humanity that depends on rice for its major staple. Merely eating this rice could prevent blindness and death. The development of golden rice was, it seemed, compelling and inspiring evidence that GM crops are the answer to malnutrition and hunger. Time quoted former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: "Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy, starvation is." Shortly after the Time cover story, Monsanto and other biotechnology companies launched a $50 million marketing campaign, including $32 million in TV and print advertising. The ads, complete with soft focus fields and smiling children, said that "biotech foods could help end world hunger." Other ad campaigns have followed. One Monsanto ad tells the public: "Biotechnology is one of tomorrow's tools in our hands today. Slowing its acceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford." Within a few months, the biotech industry had spent far more on these ads than it had on developing golden rice. Their purpose? "Unless I'm missing something," wrote Michael Pollan in The New York Times Magazine, "the aim of this audacious new advertising campaign is to impale people like me -- well-off first-worlders dubious about genetically engineered food -- on the horns of a moral dilemma ... If we don't get over our queasiness about eating genetically modified food, kids in the third world will go blind." The implication of the ads is that lifesaving food is being held hostage by anti-science activists. In the years since Time proclaimed the promises of golden rice, however, we've learned a few things. For one thing, we've learned that golden rice will not grow in the kinds of soil that it must to be of value to the world's hungry. To grow properly, it requires heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides -- expensive inputs unaffordable to the very people that the variety is supposed to help. And we've also learned that golden rice requires large amounts of water -- water that might not be available in precisely those areas where Vitamin A deficiency is a problem, and where farmers cannot afford costly irrigation projects. And one more thing -- it turns out that golden rice doesn't work, even in theory. Malnourished people are not able to absorb Vitamin A in this form. And even if they could, they'd have to eat an awful lot of the stuff. An 11-year-old boy would have to eat 27 bowls of golden rice a day in order to satisfy his minimum requirement for the vitamin. I'm sure that given enough time and enough money, some viable genetically modified (GM) crops could be developed that contain more nutrients or have higher yields. But I'm not sure that even if that were to happen, it would actually benefit the world's poor. Monsanto and the other biotech companies aren't developing these seeds with the intention of giving them away. If people can't afford to buy GM seeds, or if they can't afford the fertilizers, pesticides and water the seeds require, they'll be left out. Poverty is at the root of the problem of hunger. As Peter Rosset, director of Food First, reminds us, "People do not have Vitamin A deficiency because rice contains too little Vitamin A, but because their diet has been reduced to rice and almost nothing else." And what, pray tell, has reduced these people to such poverty and their diets to such meager fare? In the words of the British writer George Monbiot: The world has a surplus of food, but still people go hungry. They go hungry because they cannot afford to buy it. They cannot afford to buy it because the sources of wealth and the means of production have been captured and in some cases monopolized by landowners and corporations. The purpose of the biotech industry is to capture and monopolize the sources of wealth and the means of production ... GM technology permits companies to ensure that everything we eat is owned by them. They can patent the seeds and the processes which give rise to them. They can make sure that crops can't be grown without their patented chemicals. They can prevent seeds from reproducing themselves. By buying up competing seed companies and closing them down, they can capture the food market, the biggest and most diverse market of all. No one in her right mind would welcome this, so the corporations must persuade us to focus on something else ... We are told that ... by refusing to eat GM products, we are threatening the developing world with starvation, an argument that is, shall we say, imaginative ... With rare exceptions, genetically engineered crops are being created not because they're productive or because they address real human needs, but because they're patentable. The biotech companies have invested billions of dollars because they sense in this technology the potential for enormous profit and the means to gain control over the world's food supply. Their goal is not to help subsistence farmers feed themselves. Their goal is maximum profit. While Monsanto would like us to believe they are seeking to alleviate world hunger, there is actually a very dark side to the company's efforts. For countless centuries farmers have fed humanity by saving the seed from one years crop to plant the following year. But Monsanto, the company that claims its motives are to help feed the hungry, has developed what it calls a "Technology Protection System" that renders seeds sterile. Commonly known as "terminator technology" and developed with taxpayer funding by the USDA and Delta & Pine Land Company (an affiliate of Monsanto), the process genetically alters seeds so that their offspring will be sterile for all time. If employed, this technology would ensure that farmers cannot save their own seeds, but would have to come back to Monsanto year after year to purchase new ones. Critics refer to these genetically engineered seeds as suicide seeds. "By peddling suicide seeds, the biotechnology multinationals will lock the world's poorest farmers into a new form of genetic serfdom," says Emma Must of the World Development Movement. "Currently 80 percent of crops in developing countries are grown using farm-saved seed. Being unable to save seeds from sterile crops could mean the difference between surviving and going under." To Monsanto and other GMO companies, the terminator and other seed sterilizing technologies are simply business ventures that are designed to enhance profits. In this case, there is not even the implication of benefit to consumers. I wish I could speak more highly of GM foods and their potential. But the technology is now held tightly in the hands of corporations whose motives are, I'm afraid, very different from what they would have us believe. Despite the PR, Monsanto's goal is not to make hunger history. It's to control the staple crops that feed the world. Will GMOs help end world hunger? I don't think so. John Robbins is the author of many bestsellers including "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World," the classic "Diet For A New America" and "The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less." He is the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award and Green America's Lifetime Achievement Award. To learn more about his work, visit www.johnrobbins.info This Blogger's Books from The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less by John Robbins Food Revolution, The: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World by John Robbins Many supporters of GMO seeds, are Monsanto supporters. Who is in charge of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service ? I believe it was Tom Vilsack,who is now a member of the cabnit our current Secretary.Who is Tom Vilsack?Google him and find out. Our Supreme Court Justice,Clarence Thomas,,,Used to Work for who> Monsanto.and several top positions in the Food and Drug Administration,and the Department of Agriculture,all filled with former Monsanto Lobbyist, do you really want to believe any thing these people say? I can post more articall s,but I will not, enough has been said,if you are interested at all, in what you, your children,and grandchildren are eating, do your research,,make up your own mind,in the mean time,keep saving your seeds.You might want to google, how many seed saving banks are left here in the U.S., compared to how many there used to be, and why. cAROL

I wish I was. Same writer has gone on to become garden columnist. Local newspaper(s) now has multiple locally written garden columns in some issues. Provides plenty of opportunity to read other dum...er...uh...interesting comments. Must mean this area has become a hort. hotbed, anyway. Certainly like that idea. Do see some fun gardens, here and there. Not so much up my way, as in parts of Seattle. Big part of problem likely 60 percent rental occupancy, means 6 out of 10 yards not owned by occupants. Landlords may not want renters to improve property, even when renters take an interest. Especially if they've read that piece in 'Arboretum Bulletin'.

Can't this be said of Trump supporters too? Look at any depressed area of the country where jobs have disappeared. Have they prepared themselves for changes in technology that eliminated factory jobs? Did they get a college education or training to prepare themselves for today's jobs? Did they even graduate high school? Have they been willing to move away from depressed areas? Have they turned to drugs and alcohol? Had children they can't afford? Trump is their knight in shining armor who's going to bully the world into making them love us again. I was trying to speak about the Hispanic community and to some degree the African-American community due to personal experience, what I've learned in discussions with my wife who is from the South, and endless readings on economic and political issues. So yes there are some Trump supporters that may see a knight in shining armor. I would say the same thing to them. Without going back to re-read what I wrote earlier, I think freedom and independence in all facets is what is great about this country. I don't want to be an economic slave to some politician, whether that's Clinton or Trump. I don't need affirmative action or a government handout, no thank you. I'll compete on my own and give anyone a run for their money on my own. If I don't get a job, I don't complain it must've been racism. I go get another skill or credential. I have an internal locus of control and it's great! It's empowering! At the risk of repeating myself, this country is a magnificent place. I am one of the most blessed human beings on this Earth and money plays only a small part of that statement. I am one generation removed from abject poverty where corruption (sorry to say, so similar to what we see happening on the left today) nearly guarantees a permanent underclass. Which by the way, that underclass competes for our manufacturing jobs for 20 cents on the dollar. In similar ways, the corruption , enslavement, and political servitude that my parents fled is now increasing in this country. That saddens me as a very proud American. One of the greatest inspirations in my life are my dad and mom. My father came to Los Angeles as a 5 year old not speaking a word of English. There wasn't nearly the support there is for non-native speakers. Nevertheless my father made it through high school, through lots of racial unrest (particularly with Latino and Black tensions), through racism and never did they take government assistance. My father stayed away from drugs and the gangs which he says were all over. It's a part of my family history that I don't forget. I drive by the house where my father was raised. And I drive into the cul-de-sac where I lived until I was 4 years old. And honestly it's emotional for me. So much sacrifice has been made by my parents to help me get where I am at today. My mother's father was murdered when she was 2. Even in the third-world country where she lived, she was able to fight for an education, didn't mess around with men (avoiding teenage pregnancy that is almost guaranteed in her homeland), and focused on studying accounting. She shares stories of how poor they were that they often had only had one egg to split with the 5 siblings for breakfast. She shares that she had to use candlelight to do homework because electricity would be cut off after 7 or 8 pm. It's these stories that make me realize, anything is possible with hard work in this country. No, the white man is not trying to keep me or my sons down. No my white CEO is not trying to keep my wages down because I'm Hispanic. There is opportunity all over the place! And this great country made that possible. But I don't look for government to grant me my success. The freedom to work hard is there for everyone. That is the principle I am raising my kids with. Trying to bring this back to gardening, I do share this with my kids. I have a lot of plants on a mere 8000 square foot lot. Blueberries, peaches, nectarines, citrus, apple trees, and a struggling persimmon tree and a Kishu Mini (overwatering maybe the problem). And its sometimes a pain to keep it under control but I do. And my kids notice the hard work that it takes to reap rewards from my investment. And I love it. We believe in a reap and sow world. It has paid dividends in my life and my wife's (who ironically comes from a similar background but definitely had more challenges than I did). My son has a friend who lives across the street. The mom is single. In fact she has 3 kids each with different fathers. God bless her she has done as good of a job as she can. Her kid is a good kid. But you know what that kid says to my kids? Vote for Clinton because my mom says I'll get free college. The contrast is my kids hear that college is a good option and that we are saving for it so that when the time comes, the money is there. It's two polar viewpoints and its not unlike what we see in the adult world. And by the way, I tell my kids, don't ever look at a politician as the solution to your problem. I encourage them to find the solution within themselves. I truly believe it's that paradigm that can help the poor climb out of poverty and the vicious cycles that perpetuate it. I'll share one more thing. I work in a typical corporate environment. I talk to everyone from upper management to security guards and the janitors. I really enjoy talking to this one security guard who is making minimum wage because he allows me to hear a very different perspective. He is an immigrant from a country where socialistic leanings have destroyed opportunity. It's a country where man of their taxi cab drivers are college-educated but cannot find work in their fields. Without me sharing my viewpoint on politics, he opened up about the election and said he gets angry at Hispanics because we should know better. We have fled countries like Venezuela and Cuba. My parents fled a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world (even compared to war zones! How is that even possible!). The utopian projects have failed so he says why do we come here and try to bring the principles of our failed homelands here! It was brilliant. That day I shared with my friends and coworkers, that he so eloquently describe my frustration with my own. It really frustrates me and frankly I'm not sure there is anyway to get most of them to get this major point. We must stop looking to government to fix our problems. It takes sacrifice and determination and the ability to fight temptations (like sex at 14 or 16 or blowing every penny you earn on cable tv, $100 phone plans, $600 phones, and new cars you can't afford). Well, the end of this race is near which means more time to garden! God Bless America.