GLBrain.com recently published a piece by John Nelson titled, “Genetically-Engineered Trees and Our Health” that bases much of its information on A Silent Forest, a GE trees documentary narrated by Dr. David Suzuki. It has a lot of good information in it, but a more up to date documentary on GE trees is Synthetic Forests, by the same filmmakers. That film can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oanelgcO5U&t=1s
From the GLBrain.com piece:
Unlike carefully breeding animals or plants of the same species to bring out specific desirable traits through many generations (vertical inheritance), genetic modification involves inserting the DNA of one species into another completely unrelated species to create something that could never happen through cross-pollination or hybridization (horizontal inheritance).
The biotechnologists have no real control over where the genes of one species are going to land within the genome of the other species, and they have absolutely no idea of what the expression of that gene will be in the context of its new, unrelated genome. And they also can’t control and have no idea what the unintended consequences might be of the new creation on the environment, and on the insects, plants and animals that might interact with it.
Produced by Raindancer Media and Earthlinks Inc, A Silent Forest features lead researchers, activists and impacted communities to demonstrate the unknowns and knowns of how GE trees will devastate ecosystems, forest dependent communities and the climate. Jones summarizes some of these threats in his piece.
GMO trees are a threat to all animal and plant life in the forests of the world, including the forests themselves as they use up the available water. Glyphosate and Bt toxin threaten insect, plant, animal and human health and we will be unable to stop these toxins from contaminating other plants, soils and the ground water. Hopefully it is not already too late to put the genie back in the bottle, but if we value life on this planet we need to try.