After several months of exchanges of viewpoints, a public meeting and helpful intervention by the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, the federal researchers made the decision to discontinue the work. The lack of support for this technology in the conventional industry undoubtedly also contributed to that decision. The organic farm community is very relieved and looks forward to relations with the Research Station returning to normal. All tree fruits require pollination to produce a crop. A wide variety of insects assist in this but growers ensure fruit set by renting bee hives.
Bees can fly four to five kilometers and therefore can transport pollen for that distance.
Pollen is also transported in hives when they are moved from one orchard to another over the pollination season. Research is sometimes cited that says tree fruit pollen will not travel more that 14 meters. This is research done studying movement by wind, something never considered to be an important factor in tree fruit pollination. Bee flight of up to 5 kilometers plus the movement of pollen via movement of hives as described above makes this an unworkable and unacceptable option. The seed of fruit pollinated with pollen from a genetically engineered tree would contain the transformed DNA and the vectors used to put it there.