Look around you and think about wood. Splice is printed on it. Your loo roll, your baby s nappies, your books, your wallpaper are made out of it. Chances are so are your tables, your chairs, your window frames and your doors. We can heat our houses with wood and cook with charcoal.
Wood is everywhere.
What is more, the factories that produce this wood trees - are all around us, and are equally beautiful and useful. The simple answer is, no one knows for sure. Many of the benefits are the same as those surrounding the genetic modification of crops and animals, and will be familiar to anyone who has even half an ear tuned in to the debate on GMOs in agriculture. Just as in agriculture, trees are being modified for pesticide resistance permitting the indiscriminate use of pesticides during establishment. Just as in agriculture efforts are being made to incorporate the infamous terminator technology into genetically modified trees, to prevent natural regeneration and so prevent breeding with wild populations, and incidentally giving the manufacturer a copyright on the product .