Random Thoughts on GM

The fingers have been away from the blog-keyboard for a while - for a variety of reasons including work, covering for an absent colleague, travel, volunteering. This all means that I've rather lost track of some of the exciting things happening out there beyond the boundaries of Commuterland. In my reading to catch up with life I was struck by the kerfuffle that's been going on about the proposal to release GM flies in Spain to tackle olive flies. There's been the usual outcry about meddling with nature when we don't know the potential outcome but that's an argument that could be placed on the doormat of almost every experimental procedure. And there's evidence from seven (yes, seven) years ago that such experiments don't necessarily end in death, doom and disaster. GM bollworms have been "out in the wild" without, apparently, any unexpected problems. Isn't about time we were a little less hysterical about such approaches? GM flies might just be less harmful than the clouds of insecticide that will otherwise be used on those olive trees. It's time to find out.