The most important recent additions

(The latest first)

  • The case for a GM free World.  [AL] Independent Science Panel (ISP). A panel of scientists , including members of PSRAST, has made a very comprehensive scientific document evaluating all the safety problems of genetic engineering in an impartial way. An excellent scientific reference document. Published June 2003.
  • Leading Scientist sacked after presidential intervention because of critisizing GE foods. A sensational turn of the Arpad Pusztai affair.
  • GE crops are economic disaster shows new report. The Soil Association, UK, has issued a comprehensive report about the economics of GE agriculture.
    "GM was introduced to the USA when farmers were financially vulnerable. The biotechnology industry's claims that their products would bring benefits were widely accepted, but GM crops have now proved to be a financial liability. Growing GM crops in the UK will undermine the competitiveness of British agriculture."
    Lord Peter Melchett, the Soil Association's Policy Director

  • Corporations are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the internet. Monsanto, a world leading biotech firm is using a new PR strategy, creating fake critics for attacking scientists who question food biotechnology.
  • Independent Scientists An Endangered Species. By Mae-Wan Ho, former professor of Biology at Open University, UK.

    (At Cornell University USA:) "...Though in the minority, the biotech promoters said they felt very comfortable voicing their views in public, in contrast to the concerned majority that did not."

    Too few academics are willing to openly criticise biotechnology for fear of retribution from the biotech boosters, says John Ikerd, a retired agricultural economist and biotech sceptic from the University of Missouri.

  • The enemies of democracy. This article explains how corporations use PR companies to systematically plant biased information in the media. It also includes suppression of "undesirable" facts. Such deceptive manipulation of the public has been systematically and extensively used in order to promote gene technology. Quote:
    "Modern corporate propaganda involves purchasing scientific opinions and planting them in scientific journals (without, of course, mentioning the money connection to the corporate benefactor)."
  • No need for GM rice. The experience of an Indian NGO shows that the problem with blindness that "golden rice" (GM rice with vitamin A) addresses can be solved easily and very cheaply in a natural and simple way.
  • Health Problems due to Common Sweetner Aspartame. This sweetener, common in "diet" and "light" drinks was approved in spite of important reservations by FDA experts. The handling by FDA strikingly similar to that of GE Foods in that the expert opinions were disregarded at approval.
  • Alternatives to genetic engineering of food. This is not an article but a new section that has been added to the site.
  • Toward a new paradigm for life - Beyond genetic determinism by Richard Strohman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology. A fresh very interesting explanation of the present status of the understanding of genetic regulation and a comment on the results of the Human Genome Project.
    "If the announcements from the HGP tell us anything, they tell us that we do not now how organisms make themselves. We are still, as many developmental biologists have said, in the dark ages about how organisms regulate their genomes to produce adults."
  • Genetically Engineered Crops - A Threat to Soil Fertility? by PSRAST

    "we find that it is unjustifiable to continue the culture of any transgenic crops until it has been established experimentally beyond reasonable doubt that the proposed mechanism may not result in disturbances of soil ecology. "

  • Soil Effects of Transgenic Agriculture: Biological Processes and Ecological  Consequences. By soil scientists Neil MacGregor and Max Turner
    "We are concerned about the unevaluated effects of these technologies and the possible long-term residual effects on essential soil biological processes."
    (Disturbances of soil biology may harm soil fertility.)
  • The fate of food genes and the DNA CpG motif and its impact by Professor Joe Cummins.  [EL] summary  [AL] GE foods contain genetic elements from bacteria. These may be taken up by our bodies. Cummins warns that they may lead to promotion of inflammation, arthritis and lymphoma (a malignant blood disease).
  • Regions banning some or all GE crops from their territory. [EL] The number of regions all over the world banning GE crops is increasing.
  • The Promise of Plant Biotechnology - The Threat of Genetically Modified Organisms [ML] by Professor Patrick Brown.
    "Perhaps one of the most profoundly flawed justifications of GMOs is illustrated in the often cited refrain 'GMO foods have been widely available in the marketplace for the past 5 years and not one incident of harm to public health has been documented'...In many respects the claim of safety by association is no more valid than the claim that the safety of aspirin predicts the safety of all future drugs."
  • DNA from GM maize found in chicken tissues and in cow milk. [ML] Virtually all GE foods from plants contain DNA from the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus that is suspected to constitute a health hazard. These studies indicate that such virus DNA may enter our tissues if we eat GE food.
  • Exporting Corruption. Privatisation, Multinationals and Bribery. "Corruption has been going up geometrically over the past 10 years" according to Raghavan Srinivasan, World Bank chief procurement adviser. Major actors are multinational companies according to this comprehensive and well researched report from Corner House.
  • How It Happened That We Don't Regulate Biotech [EL] by Professor Donella Meadows. A revealing article about scientists systematically hiding the truth and lying about important discoveries of hazards due to genetic engineering. This paved the way for approval of genetic engineering without any demands on stringent safety evaluation.
  • Vitamin A enhanced GE crops: potential problems. [EL] There are potentially serious health problems with such crops. In addition, this kind of crops would rather contribute to enhance the problems in the Third World.
  • Organic Farming Will Feed the World. [EL]  Astonishingly, it's more productive than high-tech agriculture. This is a major blow to the main argument for genetic engineering of crops. By Mr. George Monbiot.
  • Scientists expose "junk science" behind genetically modified corn approvals [ML] . Kellogs corn approved on the basis of scientifically deficient research. (Green Peace Press Release).
  • Biotech in trouble [EL] A good summary of the present increasingly critical situation of GE food biotechnology. "Given the serious problems that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) said may occur as thousands of new genetically modified foods are introduced into the U.S. food supply without labels, naturally one wonders about liability insurance for the biotech industry."... A leading re-insurance firm, Swiss Re concludes: "Today we must assume that the one-sided acceptance of incalculable risks means that any participants in this insurance market run the risk not only of suffering heavy losses, but also of losing control over their exposure."

    To a complete list of recent additions

"Genetically Engineered Food - Safety Problems"
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