The vaccine could increase yields of major crops such as wheat and barley by up to 30% by activating plant defense mechanisms to knock out diseases before they take hold, in the same way a shot in the arm can protect humans from flu.

But unlike other forms of genetically modified (GM) food, rejected by many consumers around the world, the Australian technique does not change plants by inserting a foreign gene. It simply silences an existing gene.

``From that point of view it's perhaps more acceptable to consumers,'' scientist Peter Waterhouse said on Wednesday. ``It's very exciting. It's enabling technology, you can do all sorts of different things with it.''

The vaccine could be used to knock out plant genes to produce non-browning bananas, caffeine-free coffee and many other changes in plants that do not involve altering their protein structure, said Waterhouse, a scientist with the government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

The technique can also silence unwanted genes that produce allergens in nuts or pollen.

TECHNOLOGY READY TO ROLL

The technology, recently proven in barley plants raised in greenhouses and about to be used in trial crops, involves inserting a small, incomplete piece of virus RNA into plant DNA.

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the material from which genes--which transmit hereditary characteristics--are made. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, helps cells make proteins, and is also the hereditary material in some viruses.

The plant recognizes the virus RNA as foreign and activates its defense mechanism, degrading the invader before it multiplies.

This results in immunity to the virus, which scientists say can be passed down through plant generations.

When the breakthrough will be brought to market is complicated by cross-patent negotiations with multinational corporations active in the GM business, as well as by consumer reaction. But technologically the process is ready to roll.

``From a technical point of view there's nothing stopping us getting plants that would be ready to be commercialized,'' Waterhouse told Reuters.

The technology is likely to be commercialized first in a proven process which switches off unwanted genes in cottonseed, producing ``healthier'' cooking oil, he said.This is three to five years away from commercialization, research team leader Allan Green told Reuters on Wednesday.

The CSIRO team has also already developed potatoes resistant to potato leaf roll virus using the technique, with plants tested in laboratories, glasshouses and in field trials.

Waterhouse said the vaccination technology would be worth millions, if not billions, of dollars in license fees and increased productivity.

HUGE SAVINGS SEEN

Savings to Australia's big wheat crop alone, worth around A billion a year on world markets (about billion US), would be huge.

Multinationals would have to buy licenses from the CSIRO if they wanted to use the technology, which was in the process of being patented, he said. Hundreds of international laboratories had already requested technical details.

``It's a technology everyone wants to use.''

CSIRO's biggest breakthrough with the new technique has come with successful trials to knock out the major world-wide crop disease barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), which affects Australia's wheat, barley and oats crops.

This is still very bad, because it keeps the food supply in the hands of corporations for their profit. And although it may seem safer than GE food, it still is altered natural plants that have not gone through extensive testing for safety, and probably won't be tested before it reaches people. Remember the GE corn, which killed all the monarch butterflies that landed on it? There's no guarantee that something like this or worse will happen with this frankenfood!

Organica: while I agree with part of what you're saying - HAVING NO EXTRA GENES is probably the best temporary protection we can get - unless you can knock down those HELICOPTERS hovering overhead, and a whole lot of other things!

Europe & the rest of the world are desperate to stop the RADIATION MARKERS, VIRAL PROMOTERS, ANTI-BIOTIC INSERT MARKERS, plus UNKNOWN ADDITIVES in the current MONSANTO G.M.O.- crops! The world is now aware of the relation between Round-Up Ready, "Agent Orange" in Viet Nam, and the human kill-off plan of "Plan Colombia"! This, and other M.A.P.s techs. are their answer, as long as OIL FUEL supplies the worlds cities!

If you want better: get off your ass & build Water Cars, found Affinity consensus communities, and CEASE BEING A CONSUMER!

Armchair "GreenPeacers'" don't have ANY SOLUTIONS - but a whole lot of demands! That's what makes the gov. Ag.Dept. treat them as pests to be placaded!

Tell you Bikshivik Friends the same thing! Damned "moral posturing" isn't enough! If we want a pure new world, we will have to build it - starting by tearing up all these damn Petro-highways & parking lots!

The thing I notice about the description of this "immune-reaction" process, is that it respects the genetic INTEGRITY of the plant - by neither adding nor subtracting genes. This is the main principle we should insist on! The first Article of any proposed "World Bill of Specie Rights"!

- Another thing is that NO PESTICIDES need be used on the crop! This is a good thing - in HUGE contrast to Monsantos' spray,spray,spray policy - linked directly to BIO-WARFARE of killing plants with sprays in Colombia!

- One final point. While "city beltline" organic anarchists communities can do much better than this with multi-crop & rotated planting. Isn't it unrealistic to expect the Prarie wide, flat spaces to be weeded by hand? This technology used there would be a welcome chamge from G.M.O. pollen-contaminating crops!

- What worries me ( besides outright killer-fascist contempt for all life and species) is that Monsanto can keep billing their pesticidal resistant crops as "no-till" solutions! Since much of this is about FUEL (not food at all), the "savings" to farmers under marginal bank-loan pressure, combined with outrageous "corporate welfare" subsidies, could keep the G.M.O.s' going for years....

- I think Europe will sink U.S. threats at W.T.O. in Qutar though - because of these very subsidies (which U.S. tries to hide - partly as their proposed "Kyoto-credit Frankenfood plan)...

- When Duetsche-Bank announces that "G.M.O.s' are DEAD!" - I think they are refering to this technology.

- Another thing is that most protesters seem to be "looking up" to BioTech - they got evil science, which you despise! With this technology, you are "looking DOWN" at BioTech - you got a BETTER science, and theirs is OBSOLETE!!!

- So: ATTACK from BELOW/AND/ATTACK from ABOVE: both are good & should crush the G.M.O. threat in their pincers! (With consumer support & education)