GLOBE EDITORIAL
Green genesCALL THEM "Frankenfairways." The bioengineers at Monsanto and the lawn growers at Scotts have come up with a gene-modified version of a grass used on golf courses that would be resistant to Monsanto's popular herbicide Roundup, simplifying weed-killing by country club caretakers. The problem is that its pollen has been shown to pollinate with its own species 13 miles away and to cross-pollinate with other grasses as far as 9 miles away, raising the specter of unkillable superweeds.
This new finding by scientists with the US Environmental Protection Agency differed from one arrived at by Scotts. Using many fewer plants at an early stage in the grass's development, the company's test indicated that viable pollen would travel just 1,200 feet. The US Department of Agriculture said it would require a full environmental impact statement on Scotts's bioengineered creeping bentgrass, which could take a year or longer. Development of the product should not go forward if tests do not allay the concerns of scientists, including those at the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The Forest Service says the gene-modified grass "has the potential to adversely impact all 175 national forests and grasslands." Monsanto has for years produced gene-modified soybean and cotton that are resistant to Roundup. Unlike these crops, which have to be planted each year, grass is a perennial and doesn't require replanting. Also, its pollen is much lighter and, as the EPA study conducted in Oregon demonstrates, carries much farther. This makes it more difficult to predict and control where the modified genes carried in the pollen will end up. While botanists have used cross-breeding to get desired traits in grasses, gene modification goes a step further by introducing genes from an entirely different kind of organism. In the case of the bentgrass, the Roundup-resistant gene comes from bacteria. Scotts reassures critics by noting that most golf course grass is so frequently mown that the bentgrass would never get much chance to pollinate. Even if it did pollinate with a weedy growth that resisted Roundup, the company says, there are still other herbicides for farmers or gardeners to use. But Scotts also has plans for gene-modified versions of grasses that would be for residential lawn use, where pollination is more likely to occur. A Scotts spokesman, Jim King, said these gene-modified varieties might require less mowing, water, and "chemical inputs." But what if errant pollen produces a super-crab variety or pollinates the lawn of a neighbor who prefers fine fescue or bluegrass?
"There are questions that still need to be answered," King said. In the meantime, if the rough on the back nine starts looking rougher than usual, call the EPA. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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