Gene-Altered Lawns-Coming
to Your Neighborhood Soon?

Low-mow Grass: Biotech Blessing or Curse?

- Julie Deardorff, Chicago Tribune, April 21, 2002

Despite the controversial nature of biotech crops, the cutting- edge
science is moving from farm fields into suburban lawns and golf courses as
researchers push to get genetically engineered grass to the market.

One strain of gene-altered grass, developed by seed companies and
nicknamed "low-mow," inches up more slowly than regular grass, so it
requires less cutting and watering. Other grasses would be immune to a
popular agricultural glyphosate herbicide, making weed-killing a breeze.
Bio-engineered flowers that promise longer blooms are also in the
pipeline.

Some see the products as the greatest thing since the weed whacker, the
answer to the suburban homeowner's dream of a perfect yard. Golf courses,
which use weed-prone creeping bentgrass for carpet-smooth putting greens,
are especially eager to have a grass that requires less intensive, less
expensive maintenance.

Everybody, it seems, struggles with their lawn. "Does it grow in the
shade?" Chicago's Kent Hardy asked hopefully, while pushing a cart filled
with three bags of topsoil and a bag of grass seed mixture for shady lawns
through a home improvement center.

Critics, however, say the products need more testing, have no redeeming
societal value and fear pollen from the grass could contaminate plants and
create herbicide-resistant super weeds. The American Society of Landscape
Architects, petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend field
tests until independent studies have been done.

"The new frontier of genetically engineered crops are coming to your front
lawn. It's bizarre and very concerning," said Matt Rand, director for
biotechnology for the National Environmental Trust. "It's another product
that makes no sense."

Though the "low mow" slow-growing grasses are still several years away
from commercial availability, genetically modified creeping bentgrass
could pop up on the market by 2004 or 2005, according to officials at
Ohio-based Scotts Co., where scientists have been working with turf grass
breeding programs at several universities.

This spring, Scotts plans to ask the USDA for permission to sell the first
batches of creeping bentgrass, which can tolerate being sprayed with the
herbicide Roundup, according to Scotts spokesman Jim King. Roundup, a
potent herbicide produced by Monsanto, effectively kills many types of
vegetation, including crops. But if the crops have been genetically
altered, they can withstand being sprayed by Roundup and are called
"Roundup Ready," meaning a farmer can blanket his field with the
herbicide--everything dies except the crop.

Introduced in the mid-1990s, the products have become enormously popular.
About 74 percent of this year's soy crop and about 32 percent of the corn
crop will be of biotech varieties, according to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's spring survey.

The move by Scotts is likely to revive the ongoing biotechnology debate,
which has been largely focused on agricultural crops and concerned
consumers, especially in Europe. But the controversy has also hit turf
grasses. Two years ago protesters caused more than $300,000 in damage to
an Oregon research center that was testing altered grass for golf courses.
Vandals also struck research labs in Michigan and Minnesota.

Despite the resistance, genetic modification is here. Last year, U.S.
farmers grew 88 million acres of biotech crops, mostly soybeans, corn and
cotton. Genetic engineering involves inserting genes from one plant or
animal to another to add specific traits. Meanwhile, food products that
are derived from corn or soybean probably include genetically engineered
material, said Peter Day, founding director of the Biotechnology Center
for Agriculture and the Environment at Rutgers University, which is
working with Scotts.

Proponents say biotech crops can increase agricultural productivity while
reducing farmers' reliance on pesticides. Biotech corn, for example,
carries a bacterial gene that makes a protein that is lethal to
caterpillars. Biotech cotton kills several important pests. "As the
population increases and the agricultural land declines, we have to have
methods of producing foods more efficiently," said Day. "This technology
is it. It's not a trivial activity."

Opponents to the technology argue that transgenic plants can have an
effect on neighboring plants and on pests that weren't targeted.
Genetically modified organisms have been shown to transfer genes in the
environment, contaminating neighboring crops and potentially creating
uncontrollable weeds. Widespread planting of pest- resistant crops will
accelerate resistance in pest populations, say environmentalists.

ASLA past president Len Hopper said the group has some concerns with the
technology moving forward without an independent review. Tests conducted
in 2000 by Pure Seed Testing Inc., an Oregon grass seed company, showed
that pollen from the genetically altered grass could travel as far as
3,000 feet and fertilize other grasses.

"Once it's in the field, it can be spread and you can get a buildup of
herbicide-tolerant weeds," said Hopper, the head of the landscape
architecture division for the New York City Housing Authority. "Plus
there's the potential liability of contaminating traditional varieties. As
significant as the economic benefit may be, you aren't talking about
feeding millions of starving people [with the technology]. If we had to
pause for a period of time to get an independent review, it's not a
life-or-death situation."

To develop the grasses, scientists working mainly in greenhouses at
Scotts' headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, use a gene gun to shoot plant
DNA into a tissue of grass. In the process, a tiny proportion of DNA is
integrated into the nucleus of the cell. The company won't divulge what
plants it is using as a source of genetic material to slow the growth of
grass, because it hopes to patent the technology, said a spokesman.

"In low management areas, [slow-grow] grass has a lot of opportunities
especially in public parks and interstate roadsides because it could save
money, wear on the environment and equipment," said Andrew Hamblin, a
professor of turf and grass breeding and genetics at the University of
Illinois. In addition, slow-growing grass could help cut down on lawn
mower pollution.

Roundup Ready creeping bentgrass would be ideal for golf courses, where
the grass is often smoother than a living room carpet, mowed to a height
of 2 or 3 millimeters and difficult to manage. Regular golf course grass
doesn't hold up well to herbicides, but Roundup Ready grass would "be less
susceptible to disease and probably take less water to irrigate the
course," said Monsanto spokesman Mark Buckingham. In addition, it would
reduce maintenance costs because groundskeepers could spray everything at
once instead of spot spraying.

While the grass would be welcomed by golf course owners, farmers who use
Roundup Ready crops wouldn't want the creeping bent grass released in
their corn or soybeans, said Roger Beachy, director of the Danforth Plant
Science Center in St. Louis. "It will be interesting to see the regulatory
limits placed on the distribution or the cautions," he said.

If Roundup Ready grass did get into a farmer's crop, a range of techniques
could be used to eliminate the grass, according to Buckingham, including
conventional herbicides. Farmers often have more than one Roundup Ready
crop and learn to manage them together, said Buckingham.

Clark Throssell, a turf grass scientist and the director of research for
the Golf Course Superintendent Association of America, was cautiously
optimistic. "It has potential and in theory, it sounds good, but it needs
to be evaluated," he said.

Others worry that certain inalienable rites of summer, such as the scent
of freshly cut grass would be diminished. And then there are
those--usually with small yards-- who actually look forward to cutting the
grass. "There's just something about being able to mow your lawn. It's a
stress reliever," said David Grossman, 37. "All yardwork is."