|
Letter to the editor of The Times (UK) dated 20may02, commenting on the two articles on this page. Dear Editor, Evidently the authors of the two articles accentuating the joys of GM grass on the golf course have not read about its extremely negative aspects. It requires the application of Roundup, an herbicide by Monsanto, to keep control the weeds. The makers of Roundup prefer that we think it's as safe as water. A few years back, in the USA, they were scolded for making claims of safety. They were made to cease from telling such fairy tales meant to boost sales. The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate. It has been linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma[1] and the inhibition of the creation of steroids.[2] In other words, it causes both cancer and is an endocrine disruptor. For the sake of my health and security of my family's future, I'd surely want to know if the grass I was playing on was the Roundup-Ready variety. And if that isn't bad enough, one of the so-called inert ingredients in Roundup is more toxic than glyphosate. The combination of the two is even more toxic. The US EPA calls glyphosate "extremely persistent," and according to published scientific papers, it kills beneficial insects, birds, and small mammals by destroying vegetation on which they depend for food and shelter. It increases miscarriages and premature births in farm families.[3] And wait, that's not all. As for the weeds, they become resistant to Roundup in short time and actually spread to their nearby cousins, thus creating super weeds.[4,5] Many varieties of crops have become resistant to Roundup. In Australia, rye grass can take four times the normal amount and survive.[6] Farmers sprayed more than 11 percent more herbicide on Roundup Ready fields than on fields treated with conventional herbicides. [7] Enjoying those weedless fairways is a short-term prospect, because it will be a race to see which happens first; either the weeds will take over, or the golfers will get non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. These courses should be labeled, just as the GM crops on our tables should be. And articles about them should divulge the whole truth, rather than just the enjoyable aspects of such technology.
|
THE world’s first genetically modified golf courses have been planted at 14 secret locations in America, preparing the way for club hackers to putt on greens as smooth as those at Augusta and St Andrews.
Greens, tees and fairways at the trial courses have been seeded with a strain of GM grass that provides the truest of playing surfaces, and is also cheap and easy for greenkeepers to maintain. The development, by the American seed company Scotts, will make top-quality grass available to ordinary golf clubs for the first time, allowing them to produce the fast, smooth greens that usually only championship courses can afford.
Environmental campaigners say that the planting is an unnecessary and frivolous application of biotechnology that puts wildlife at risk without any serious benefit.
The grass, which should be commercially available in America within two years, is a version of creeping bentgrass, a variety that is accepted as one of the finest surfaces for golf. It is used in its natural form at courses such as Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters, and Loch Lomond in Scotland.
Creeping bentgrass usually makes for an extremely high-maintenance, if high-quality, lawn. It is very susceptible to weeds and weedkiller, and must be tended by hand for the best results. It is beyond the means of most clubs. The GM variety carries a bacterial gene that confers resistance to a herbicide made by Monsanto called Roundup, or glyphosphate. As a result, greenkeepers can control weeds, especially another grass called annual bluegrass, with Roundup.
Bob Harriman, executive vice-president for biotechnology at Scotts, based in Marysville, Ohio, said that the new grass would solve a key problem of golf course management. “Creeping bentgrass has an exquisite biology for golf. It is a low-growing grass that can be mown down to a tenth of an inch,” he said. “The drawback is weeds. It gets infested with annual bluegrass, which is almost impossible to get rid of without weeding by hand. Our solution is to introduce herbicide tolerance, so it can be successfully sprayed.”
The first trial courses in America were planted with the seed last year. British golf courses are unlikely to be able to plant GM seed so soon: there is a moratorium on new GM organisms, and experts believe that the grass is unlikely to receive regulatory approval for at least a decade.
Andy Newell, head of turf biology at the Sports Turf Research Institute in Bingley, West Yorkshire, which advises the Royal and Ancient Golf Club on grasses, said that there could be unpredictable consequences. “A herbicide-tolerant grass would certainly be useful to the greenkeeper, but only until it gets into weedy grasses. Then it becomes a nightmare.”
Critics of GM crops said that the development was unnecessary and irresponsible. “There are many, many species of grass that pollinate one another, and so the potential for genetic escape is considerable,” Pete Riley, of Friends of the Earth, said. “Also, though people and farm animals won’t eat this grass, we don’t know what the effects on the wild animals and birds that do live in the area would be.”
Dr Harriman said there were no known weedy varieties of bentgrass, making it impossible for the herbicide tolerance trait to cross into natural plants and create superweeds.
MODIFIED grasses that will make the ball roll more smoothly on the greens and fairways of a club golfer’s local course are to be welcomed. If scientists can provide such an improvement, players the world over should unite in a chorus of thanks.
Putting per se is not difficult. Swinging a club that has very little loft on it a couple of feet back and then a few feet forward is hardly physically or mentally taxing. Compared with the dozens of thoughts and movements involved in gripping a club and swinging at a stationary ball, putting is straightforward.
The difficulty comes in coping with the different surfaces on which a golfer must play. Those amateurs lucky enough to play at the best clubs, where greens and fairways are lovingly tended, will know that most times their ball will roll straight and true. The trick is to read the line and judge the speed. Is this putt with the grain or against it? How much will that slight slope halfway to the hole slow the ball? Watch out for that slight ledge in the green: the ball will gain speed as it passes over it.
Members of clubs that have greens where these are the only considerations are in a minority. Many of Britain and Ireland’s 3,000 clubs have greens that at best are spongy, contain more than one or two weeds and might not have been cut either very closely or very recently.
The weather has a lot to do with it in our northern climes. Little sun and little growth do not make good greens. It is common for golfers from these islands to travel to courses such as Valderrama in Spain or any of half a dozen in Florida and exclaim to one another: “These tees and fairways are almost as good as our greens back home.”
On greens such as are common for most months of the year in the British Isles, a golfer has to worry as much about what his ball will do because of the condition of the greens as he does about how to hit it.
At Augusta National golf club in Georgia, the site of the Masters and undoubtedly the best-prepared golf course on which an important tournament is played regularly, the greens and fairways present a rare challenge. They are so firm that the great American golfer Sam Snead once said that walking on them sounded as though you were crushing crisps under your feet.
The greens are also very fast. Putting down hill on the ninth at Augusta has been likened to putting from the top of a marble staircase and trying to stop the ball halfway down.
Such a surface, however fast and firm, rewards a true stroke, one hit knowing that no errant weed, remains of a worm cast or soggy footprint will deflect the ball. Hit it straight, get the strength right and the ball will go in.
As on the greens, so on the fairways: better grass will mean a better lie. The ball will sit up and there will be fewer of those horrible cupped lies.
If technological advances can create such conditions on this side of the Atlantic, we should take advantage of them.
Varied crop of views
Genetic modification of crops remains one of the most divisive areas of scientific advance:
Ecological view: Although some environmentalists accept the benefits of GM for making plants resistant to disease, most oppose gene manipulation as unethical and risking the cross-contamination of species.
Commercial view: Multinational biotech firms such as Monsanto have vigorously promoted GM as the safe and practical future of commercial crop growing, particularly in food production.
Political view: The Government has refused to be drawn on the commercial future of GM crops pending trial results later this year, although senior figures are known to favour the potential benefits to industry.
|
If you have come to this page from an outside location click here to get back to mindfully.org |