John Pickett

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2012

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor John Pickett's research into GM crops was at the centre of a public debate last month. His experimental work has engineered insect alarm systems into wheat, so that the plants give off chemicals which repel greenflies or aphids. Activists known as "Take the Flour Back" had threatened to destroy field trials, but the day passed peacefully. Professor Pickett's research for over 30 years has been based on using insect pheromones (the chemical messengers the insects send to one another) and understanding how plants are able to attract or push crop pests away. A pioneering technique he's developed known as push pull means that farmers in Africa have been able to improve their yields simply by planting what are known as companion crops that repel pests and trap crops which entice the insects. So if this approach is so successful is there really a need for GM versions?

Transcript

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0:34.2	My guest today has found his research into genetically engineered plants
0:38.4	which produce insect repellants against green fly or aphids
0:41.9	at the centre of a very public debate.
0:44.3	We've chosen wheat because it is our most important crop and aphids are the most important
0:49.3	pest on it.
0:51.3	And a springweed.
0:52.3	We're doing the experiment. aphids, aphids is not a problem and a springweed we're doing the experiment if it's not a problem in springweed
0:55.9	the scientist in that news night clip is professor John Pickett a chemist who early in his
1:01.6	career identified how chemical messages or pheromones produced by insects
1:07.0	could be used to prevent pests destroying crops.
1:11.0	And he's been involved in this area of research for over 30 years.
1:14.6	His latest work has been to genetically engineer wheat so that it produces an aphid alarm
1:19.8	signal repelling the insect. Field trials of this week are currently being carried out at
1:24.6	Roth Hampstead Research, a government-funded agricultural research station, and in response
1:30.1	to the open-air planting, the activist group take the flower back,
	...

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