E.coli’s use in GMOs: can you get E.coli poisoning?

E. coli bacteria viewed with electron microscopy. Image by Zeiss Microscopy via Flickr.

For my first post on Biofortified, I’d like to share an account of an exchange that started on Twitter. It all began when I stumbled upon a doozy of a story, about how you can get E. coli poisoning from GMOs. The author outlines that E.coli is used during the course of genetic engineering to replicate DNA since it is highly prolific. But, the author highlights, E.coli is also able to transfer DNA laterally to and from other species. Then the author says: “It is possible that a mutated form of e-coli resulting from the cloning process used in creating GMOs could get into the gut of a person or animal that eats a transgenic plant.” The author then states that DuPont has partnered with the USDA in “identifying hard-to-identify strains of E.coli“. The theory comes full circle with the statement: “with this convenient partnership, even if harmful strains of e-coli relating to GMOs are discovered, it is likely that the public will never hear it from the USDA or DuPont.”
I feel like the author of this post missed out on an opportunity to write for the X-Files. Continue reading →

Reductionist thinking and GMOs

Written by Bill Price

While the article GMOs, Silver Bullets and the Trap of Reductionist Thinking has garnered some praise, I was hoping for more here and was left unimpressed. Written by Jonathan Foley, Director of the Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, the article begins by stating that GMOs have come with “Big Problems”. He goes on to elaborate several points that are actually either old myths, untrue, or not really GE specific. In the move from “lab into the real world” he states that “they end up being very disappointing.” I wonder how many growers across the globe would agree with that. I’d like to take a closer look at some of the “problems” that he sees: Continue reading “Reductionist thinking and GMOs” →

Roundup in 75% of Air? What the report actually says

Written by Kevin Folta

75percentyo — Information without context is not knowledge

Last week the anti-biotech websites exploded with the news: “Roundup Weedkiller Found in 75% of Air and Rain Samples, Gov. Study Finds” and more scary-sounding titles like that.
My first response was to get a copy of the paper right away so I could read all about it and see the data. That would be pretty remarkable. But I could not access the paper at Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. So how did all of these websites above and their scholarly journalists get the manuscript?
I contacted one of the original paper’s authors, Dr. Paul Capel, and asked for a copy and got one. Apparently I was the first. Seems like those coming to the conclusions of the websites above were acting true to form– skimming an abstract and drawing a conclusion that best fits their desires.
So I actually read the paper! Want to know what it says? Continue reading “Roundup in 75% of Air? What the report actually says” →

Nine Dirty Little Secrets? One Inconvenient Truth

Written by Kevin Folta

farmed-and-dangerous — Farmed and Dangerous: How Chipotle views those who disagree with them.

Over on Huffington Post’s Food for Thought Blog they have offered their bandwidth to a series of voices to expand on the epic science narrative Farmed and Dangerous. “Farmed” is a slick and cute, yet intellectually simple and unsatisfying indictment of the American farming system.
One of the guest bloggers is Robyn O’Brien. I like Robyn, I’ve spoken with her personally and we share an email now and then. We’re on precisely the same page about issues like better nutrition and healthier eating especially for kids. Where we part ways is on her less-than-scientific treatment of transgenic technology. Robyn’s 2/20/14 submission, “Nine Dirty Little Secrets About GMOs” does not disappoint, as it provides fertile misinformation to fuel the non-critical thinker’s fear of science, along with ample opportunity for me to rope in the insanity with a lasso of evidence.
Let’s look at those dirty little secrets, presented below in bold. They are neither dirty, little or secrets, and most don’t just apply to GMOs! I will address them one by one. Continue reading →

Genetic Roulette picked apart on Youtube

This comes via PythagoreanCrank in the Forum. The League of Nerds has just published an hour-long investigation into the documentary, Genetic Roulette, and they are as kind as can be expected from scientists who know what they are talking about. Just a casual conversation on a couch with no green screen, a magical cat, and just enough swear words to add color to their tin foil hats!

Drinking roundup makes guys live longer!

Myles Power likes to share his love of science by blogging and making videos about ‘fun with Science!’ Ha also debunks bad scientific claims, and has recently turned his attention to genetically engineered crops. Take a look at this video, where he addresses the frequently promoted and criticized 2012 Seralini study. In it, he points out that the only actual correlation in Seralini’s rat mortality data suggests that males who drink roundup live longer lives, among other odd things about the paper.

Want to see more? He has also blogged about GMO rice, claims of Bt crops and Leukemia, proposition 37, cookie-cutter anti-GMO “research,” and public opinions about GMOs. He also addresses his critics, and discussed the Green PolkaDot Box’s odd claims about GMOs. Worth checking out!
Naturally, drinking roundup will probably not make men live longer, and that’s the point.

Roseanne’s Nuts about GMOs

Lately, a lot has been going on in the crop biotechnology arena in Hawai’i. There’s Hawai’i Bill 79, and Kaua’i Bill 2491, and, well, Roseanne Barr. Following her showbiz career, she moved to Hawai’i and started up an organic macadamia nut farm. There was even a brief reality TV show about it, called Roseanne’s Nuts. What do you get when you combine a TV personality with an organic farm with a hotbed of political controversy over GMOs in Hawai’i? Oh yeah, lots of fun.
Roseanne testified in favor of Hawai’i Bill 79 last week, stressing her connection to the people pf Hawai’i, and, well, her burning desire to see genetically engineered crops gone. Her words were reprinted in a few news articles, and echoed by anti-genetic engineering groups.

But there was another statement of hers that started getting promoted – that she believed that the papaya variety that was genetically engineered to be resistant to the devastating Papaya Ringspot Virus wiping out farms in Hawai’i was actually the cause of the viral outbreak itself! Continue reading →

A Wiki for GMOs

At the Biofortified Blog, we get a lot of questions about the basics of genetically engineered crops. From time to time there are new and unique questions, but there is a certain set of questions that come up again and again. Questions about how GMOs affect pesticide use, yield, and health always seem to come up, along with questions about patents, companies, and more. Along with each question comes a number of pernicious myths, like claims about “Terminator” genes and tumors, autism and wheat gluten intolerance of all things. It can get frustrating to have a discussion when half of the conversation is spent skewering the same myths.
When I was just entering graduate school, I had thought to approach this topic with a wiki. Their simple and openly-editable nature works well for collaborating among many people. I started one in hopes that a general guide to genetics would be able to inform discussions about GMOs. But it didn’t get much beyond placeholder pages. Later, the inspiration for this blog came and all spare time went in that direction. (And it has been worth it!)
From time to time, on this blog and elsewhere, we have seen calls for a Snopes-like approach to debunking myths about GMOs. We’ve had some thoughts about how to do it with informative pages and periodic posts, but that has only addressed a few of these things. In the last week, however, such calls came from multiple directions Continue reading “A Wiki for GMOs” →

Shades of Green in Chicago

Happy New Year readers! While things have been a little slow around here in the past month given the holidays, now that 2013 has rolled around that is surely going to change. Contest prizes have been sent and received, and Frank N. Foode™ is traveling in the far away subcontinent of India with Becca Harrison, a student at Cornell University who has already contributed to the Biofortified Blog. We’re sure to hear about some fun things from that trip. And I have some great news for any of you who are in the Chicago area this weekend: I will be giving a talk about genetically engineered crops tomorrow on Sunday the 6th, and you can be there!
The Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago invited me to give the talk, and it has already generated a back-and-forth exchange. It seems that Jeffrey Smith’s documentary, Genetic Roulette, will be shown in Chicago a week later, which promises to be a horribly bad source of information. I’ll be talking about some of Smith’s claims for sure. And this might be an excellent time to bring out some things I discovered both attending one of Smith’s online seminars, and talking to him on the phone, which I have not yet talked about on the blog. Oh yes, I’m teasing you with juicy, exclusive tidbits that you can’t get anywhere else, so if you are in the greater Chicago area, come on down and join the Sunday fun! See their site for the details.
Despite his busy travel schedule in India, Frank N. Foode™ will also be attending the talk and will be available for photo ops. I don’t know how he does it!

Thomas Sims gets it

Thomas Sims, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Biological Sciences department at NIU. He was interviewed for a column about genetically engineered crops written for Northern Star Online, that claimed that GE foods are unsafe, quoting Dr. Oz, Jeffrey Smith, and the AAEM.
Here is an example of the claims made in the piece.

Between the U.S. and European countries, which has more instances of food allergies? Which has more instances of asthma or autism? Which has more instances of cancer and heart disease? Yes, I understand many factors play a role in these distinctions. However, I think it would be unwise to ignore the relation between the introduction of GM foods and higher instances of food-related allergies. Do you honestly believe major corporations care more about the health and safety of the public over their ability to make a profit?

His words only got a brief mention, and his response is a model for how scientists should respond to these kinds of claims. We have received permission to republish his spot-on commentary. (He has asked that I obscure the name of the young reporter who wrote the column so that it is about the information and not the person. So only the name has been edited.) Enjoy!

Column regarding genetically modified foods was one-sided and misinformed

This author’s column on Genetically Modified (GM) foods is a thinly-veiled hatchet job, repeating a mixture of half-truths, lies and grossly misinformed opinions about this technology. Continue reading “Thomas Sims gets it” →