A less corporate-friendly take on the history of of GM foods than the
coverage in Science, which includes an example of enablement of outright
deception by Science's editors, can be found in my recent essay on the
subject, attached.
On Thu, 5 Aug 2010 19:09:11 +0200, Michael Balter <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>It seems a little late to ban it completely, unless Phil and his political
>organization have a plan to make that happen. The writer of the piece I
>posted makes a very specific argument about the golden rice he is involved
>in, and its potential to supply vitamin A, deficiency of which apparently
>kills a lot of people. His specific argument needs to be met with an
>effective counter-argument if such can be made, and not a lot of rhetorical
>handwaving. Otherwise the anti-GMO movement is bound to lose both the
>argument and the battle. I've made similar comments about the anti-nuke
>movement. It's all fine and good to regale this list with smug rhetoric,
>it's another thing entirely to have an influence in the real world.
>
>MB
>
>On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 6:31 PM, Phil Gasper <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, we should simplify matters by banning it completely. The idea that GE
>> crops will save millions from starvation is straight out of the agribusiness
>> propaganda handbook. What we need is to stop financial speculation in
>> agriculture (http://harpers.org/archive/2010/07/0083022), but�oops�that
>> will require more regulation. --PG
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Michael Balter
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>>
>>> The writer argues that genetic engineering is subject to too much
>>> regulation, with examples. Could he be right in some cases?
>>>
>>> MB
>>>
>>> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html
>>>
>>> <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html>
>>>
>>> NATURE | OPINION
>>> Regulation must be revolutionized
>>>
>>> - Ingo
Potrykus<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html>
>>>
>>> Nature 466, 561 (29 July 2010) doi:10.1038/466561a Published online 28
>>> July 2010
>>>
>>> Unjustified and impractical legal requirements are stopping genetically
>>> engineered crops from saving millions from starvation and malnutrition, says
>>> Ingo Potrykus.
>>> Article tools
>>>
>>> -
print<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html>
>>> -
email<http://www.nature.com/nature/foxtrot/svc/mailform?doi=10.1038/466561a&file=/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html>
>>> - download
pdf<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/pdf/466561a.pdf>
>>> - download
citation<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/ris/466561a.ris>
>>> - order
reprints<https://s100.copyright.com/AppDispatchServlet?author=Ingo+Potrykus&orderBeanReset=true&title=Regulation+must+be+revolutionized&pageNumbers=pp561&publisherName=NPGR&volumeNum=466&issueNum=7306&numPages=1&contentID=10.1038%2F466561a&publicationDate=2010-07-28&publication=Nature>
>>> - rights and
permissions<https://s100.copyright.com/AppDispatchServlet?author=Ingo+Potrykus&title=Regulation+must+be+revolutionized&pageNumbers=pp561&publisherName=NPG&volumeNum=466&issueNum=7306&numPages=1&contentID=10.1038%2F466561a&publicationDate=2010-07-28&publication=Nature>
>>> -
share/bookmark<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html>
>>>
>>> See online collection.<http://www.nature.com/news/specials/food/index.html>
>>>
>>> Genetically engineered crops could save many millions from starvation and
>>> malnutrition � if they can be freed from excessive regulation. That is the
>>> conclusion I've reached from my experience over the past 11 years chairing
>>> the Golden Rice Humanitarian project (http://www.goldenrice.org), and
>>> after a meeting at the Vatican last year on transgenic plants for food
>>> security in the context of
development1<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html#ref1>
>>> .
>>>
>>> Golden rice will probably reach the market in 2012. It was ready in the
>>> lab by 1999. This lag is because of the regulatory differentiation of
>>> genetic engineering from other, traditional methods of crop improvement. The
>>> discrimination is scientifically unjustified. It is wasting resources and
>>> stopping many potentially transformative crops such as golden rice making
>>> the leap from lab to plate.
>>>
>>> More defensible � on scientific and humanitarian grounds � and more
>>> practical would be for new genetically modified crops to be regulated, not
>>> according to how they are bred, but according to their novelty, as are new
>>> drugs. All traits, however introduced, should be classified by their
>>> putative risk or benefit to the consumer and to the environment. Researchers
>>> and regulators could then focus on cases in which risks are real and
>>> fast-track crops urgently needed in the developing world.
>>>
>>> Golden rice is a series of varieties modified with two genes (phytoene
>>> synthase and phytoene double-desaturase) to produce up to 35 micrograms of
>>> vitamin A precursor per gram of edible rice. Within the normal diet of
>>> rice-dependent poor populations, it could provide sufficient vitamin A to
>>> reduce substantially the 6,000 deaths a day due to vitamin A deficiency, and
>>> to save the sight of several hundred thousand people per
year1<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html#ref1>.
>>> None of the existing varieties of rice has even low levels of the vitamin A
>>> precursor in the part that is eaten, so conventional breeding cannot
>>> increase it. Golden rice was possible only with genetic engineering.
>>>
>>> The crop was stalled for more than ten years by the working conditions and
>>> requirements demanded by regulations (see 'From bench to belly'). For
>>> example, we lost more than two years for the permission to test golden rice
>>> in the field and more than four years in collecting data for a regulatory
>>> dossier that would satisfy any national biosafety authority. I therefore
>>> hold the regulation of genetic engineering responsible for the death and
>>> blindness of thousands of children and young mothers.
>>>
>>> Our experience is far from unique. It generally takes about ten times more
>>> money and ten years longer to bring a genetically modified crop to market
>>> than a non-genetically modified one. This keeps public research institutions
>>> out of the game and has given a handful of companies a de facto monopoly on
>>> the technology. Private ventures justifiably focus on the most profitable
>>> opportunities � industrial crops such as corn, cotton and soya beans.
>>> Genetic engineering, however, has massive potential to also address
>>> food-security problems � to increase yield by protecting subsistence food
>>> crops from pests and diseases, to strengthen crops' competition with weeds
>>> and to improve plants' nutritional value.
>>> Running the gauntlet
>>>
>>> Existing regulation demands many years' worth of molecular and biochemical
>>> safety tests. Yet multiple international agencies have found
>>> genetic-engineering crop technology to be benign. There have not been any
>>> substantiated cases of harm to the environment or to humans, even in the
>>> litigious United States where the adoption of genetic engineering is
>>> widespread.
>>>
>>> Meanwhile, a new plant created by traditional breeding methods � which
>>> also modify the genome � requires no safety data, only the demonstration
>>> that it performs at least as well as others. It is a quick and cheap
>>> process. This imbalance allows non-scientific opponents of genetic
>>> engineering to raise unfounded concerns, which a nervous public cannot
>>> properly evaluate, especially in Europe.
>>>
>>> All of this means that engineering varieties for the public good depends �
>>> ironically � on the private sector.
>>>
>>> Golden rice is a prime
example1<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html#ref1>.
>>> Only within the framework of a public�private partnership with Syngenta was
>>> our team able to navigate the product-development morass. Without Syngenta
>>> we could not, for example, have reduced the number of patents involved,
>>> secured free licences, established managerial and marketing structures or
>>> developed plants that are optimized to meet regulatory requirements and to
>>> express high levels of desired
traits1<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/full/466561a.html#ref1>
>>> .
>>>
>>> Yet it is the responsibility of the public sector to address the crop
>>> needs of poor people. And it is wiser to spend public funds on feeding the
>>> world's growing population than on jumping through regulatory hoops, or
>>> worse on spurious, politically expedient research into hypothetical risks
>>> for the environment or the consumer, which have already been studied
>>> carefully over the past 25 years.
>>>
>>> A good next step would be for a country with political and economic
>>> independence to recognize the arguments in favour of reducing the current
>>> regulatory burden for genetically engineered crops. Such a country would
>>> gain enormously by freeing funds, time and energy for research, development
>>> and deployment of many more genetically engineered crops for poor people;
>>> its public sector and small enterprises would be able to compete with the
>>> larger industries. Without compromising safety, that nation would easily
>>> progress faster than those continuing to focus on hypothetical risks, and it
>>> would provide some much needed leadership. Perhaps then, lab-ready varieties
>>> from the public domain such as golden cassava, golden banana, iron-, zinc-
>>> and protein-rich rice might get from bench to belly in 5 years, rather than
>>> 15, if at all.
>>>
>>> --
>>> ******************************************
>>> Michael Balter
>>> Contributing Correspondent, Science
>>> Adjunct Professor of Journalism,
>>> New York University
>>>
>>> Email: [log in to unmask]
>>> Web: michaelbalter.com
>>> NYU: journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/balter.html
>>> ******************************************
>>>
>>> "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the
>>> poor have no food, they call me a Communist." -- H�lder Pessoa C�mara
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>--
>******************************************
>Michael Balter
>Contributing Correspondent, Science
>Adjunct Professor of Journalism,
>New York University
>
>Email: [log in to unmask]
>Web: michaelbalter.com
>NYU: journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/balter.html
>******************************************
>
>"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor
>have no food, they call me a Communist." -- H�lder Pessoa C�mara
>
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