Bt corn flap

[Rcjohnsen]

<< Subject: Re: Bt corn flap
From: r.knell at qmw.ac.uk  (Rob Knell)
Date: Tue, Mar 28, 2000 2:50 PM
Message-id: <38e0c510.22847224 at news.qmw.ac.uk>
 >>
<< >How about that corporations can add it to your food and not tell you about
it? 
>Is the right to know or freedom of choice such a little thing when it is a
food
>additive?  How about people who may be allergic to it?  

Why are the above points more important when it's a protein expressed by the
plant rather than one grown in a vat and sprayed on?>>

Perhaps it's because things sprayed on can be washed off but the engineered
food has it buillt in.  That's why the organically grown industry has grown up
because people didn't want produce sprayed with pesticides.  Now there is no
choice.  An organic farmer may plant engineered crops and not even know it.  No
label, you see!

<< How about other pesticides engineered into plant DNA? One of the things
about recombinant DNA technology is that it is a whole new technology, and each
case should be considered seperately. BT toxin expressing plants are a
completely different case than glyphosate >>

Most certainly the case!  Glyphosphate is different from Bt  But how about the
cases engineered for Bt and corn root borer???  Or Bt, corn root borer and corn
smut???  Most of us know of the plant wars between bugs an plant.  Plants
produce toxins(other compounds) that are toxic or distasteful to their
predator.  Eventually, the predator population breeds a mutant to overcome this
obstacle and moves in again.  So the battle continues slowly.  Yet no one
disputes that eating fresh fruits and vegies is more beneficial that not and
that has been shown true repeatedly.  We have accelerated this battle to a
considerable pace and we can expect increased resistance by the bug, bacteria,
fungal predators.
And the evidence is once resistant, the predators don't go away.  We are doing
the same sort of things to crops that we did to microbial pathogens and I
wonder if that is such a good idea.  We ought to have a better understanding of
these processes before we proceed to shotgun approaches.

<< for example. BT endotoxin is completely harmless to mammals. You can eat it
by the handful and all that will happen will be that you might get a slightly
better diet as a consequence. >>

Would you like to test this out?  A handful of Bt endotoxin each day washed
down with a cup of glyphosphate???  There was a fellow who ate a tsp of DDT in
front of his lectures to prove it wasn't harmful.  Where is he now??

<< I'm not necessarily in favour of GM technology myself. I just wish there
were a little more rational argument and less hysteria in the discussion.
Cheers
Rob
 >>

I am neither pro or con GM organisms/food/food products but I am concern that
we test them adequately before releasing them Willy-Nilly into the field.  The
articles I've posted are from respected people published in peer reviewed
journals
 such as Science, Nature or Trends in Genetics or from science writers in
popular magazines like discover, Mother Earth News, Nerws Week, Science News,
Scientific American etc..  I find that they generally present a bipartisam view
on Genetic engineering, and Cloning.  I post them without comment or I give the
reference site where people interested in the article can go and download it.
I have met some hysteria from some of the readers, however.  On both sides.
Roger