Proposal to modify plants revives GMO debate

New York

WHAT'S in a name? A lot, if the name is genetically modified organism, or GMO, which many people are dead set against.

But what if scientists used the precise techniques of today's molecular biology to give back to plants genes that had long ago been bred out of them? And what if that process were called "rewilding"? That is the idea being floated by a group at the University of Copenhagen, which is proposing the name for the process that would result if scientists took a gene or two from an ancient plant variety and melded it with more modern species to promote greater resistance to drought, for example.

"I consider this something worth discussing," said Michael Palmgren, a plant biologist at the Danish university who headed a group, including scientists, ethicists and lawye…