Tag: Safety and Regulations

Natural GMOs Part 83: Natural biology comes with no guarantee of safety

Scanning electron micrograph of Escherichia coli, grown in culture and adhered to a cover slip: Image: National Institutes of Health (part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services)/Public domain. Natural GMOs can be really really bad and fundamentally unsafe, because Nature is not scrutinised by any human regulatory agency, and many natural GMOs…

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The lethal elephant in the room: Real risks in our food

Even as speculation about imaginary risks of GM foods continues, particularly among some organic sector enthusiasts, real food risks in the food chain remain unmanaged. Exposure of fresh vegetable produce to manure is a case in point. Pathogenic Escherichia coli are one of more frequent health dangers of fresh vegetables. These bacteria can be present…

Food

There are a lot of different ways for Bt proteins to get into our food

The insect pest protection protein called Bt deployed in many genetically manipulated crops is hitting the news again. Since Marcel Kuntz’ posting on the alleged detection of this protein Bt (variety Cry1Ab) in tissues of women, including pregnant women, as claimed by Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc, discussion of the Aris-Leblanc scientific paper making this…

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Miracul in your tomatoes

Know your tomatoes May 13, 2011 Re-posted from Phys.org Genetically modified (GM) tomatoes look much the same as traditional varieties (Fig. 1). But are they? By comparing the chemical diversity of strains of GM tomatoes with a control strain and traditional reference cultivars, a research team in Japan has developed a way to distinguish between…

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GMO Statistics Part 11: To find a harm you have to measure harm

Gilles- Eric Seralini has won a court case in Paris over the issue of whether his funding by Greenpeace may have influenced his scientific judgement. Richard Hudson of ABC radio in Western Australia interviewed Seralini on this matter[link to ABC webpage], and also asked David Tribe to comment about the merits of Seralini’s scientific arguments…

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Omics approach shows fewer changes from GE than breeding and environment

Ricroch AE, Bergé JB, & Kuntz M (2011). Evaluation of genetically engineered crops using transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic profiling techniques. Plant physiology PMID: 21350035 The authors conducted a literature survey on 44 recent “omic” comparisons between GE and non-GE crop lines. Those profiling techniques (transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) have been increasingly applied to the analysis…

Science

15 years, 81 projects, 400 teams and €70 million all about GMOs and GMO safety– thank you European Union taxpayers

European commission webpage describing EC-sponsored research on safety of genetically modified organisms. In the Introduction to this European commission webpage they note: Of particular importance in this context is the use of Genetically Modified Organisms outside contained facilities. Consequently, GMO safety research has been supported in successive Framework Programmes from 1985 to the present day….

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Scientific background report on maize MON810

8/07/2010Scientific background report MON810 In this scientific background report, VIB brings together the most recent data about MON810, one of the first biotech crops allowed for cultivation in the EU. Despite the scientific consensus that it is safe for humans and the environment, several EU member states have since banned its cultivation. What are the…

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Government funded TV program discusses GM food risks but gives no scrutiny to those who speculate about hazards.

Australian government funded TV program The 7.30 Report has just run an item about a purportedly new risk in GM food. To discuss this risk, the program featured an abundance of voices from antitechnology organisations but gave no effective scrutiny of their scientific arguments or credentials. The object of The 7.30 Report discussion was a…

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AquAdvantage update

In Risk assessment and mitigation of AquAdvantage salmon I discussed exactly what Aqua Bounty was asking permission from the FDA to do, as well as the environmental, animal welfare, and human health concerns associated with the AquAvantage fish in comparison to non-transgenic farmed salmon. The Center for Food Safety has a “new” document to bring…