Word: gm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2000
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...September, GM corn was discovered in tacos sold in the United States. The strain of corn, known as StarLink, has been altered so that it can "naturally" produce a toxin for corn borers, one of the more significant pests that plague corn crops. The pesticide produced by the artificially enhanced corn, however, is not quite as harmless to human health as initially predicted: the transplanted gene also codes for a human allergen. Recognizing the uncertainty, if not the danger, involved with this GM organism, the U.S. government revoked the right of Aventis--the company that produces StarLink--to plant...
...strain. Even without the danger of an adverse reaction in humans, the unexpected occurrence of modified genomes is an enormous ecological problem. Yet this time, because of the suspected threat to human health, the matter was significantly more than "theoretically" wrong. Despite a ban on the use of a GM organism in the United States, a possible health threat found its way into the food supply of another country from American imports...
...controversy generated by the discovery of the genetically modified corn put both the Japanese and American governments under enormous market pressure to tighten controls on GM organisms. Japan needs 16 million tons of corn a year to satisfy demand, and imports 95 percent of its supply from the United States. With the emergence of genetically modified genes in American grain, Japanese companies were extremely reluctant to buy American corn. In protest of shoddy export controls, Japanese companies boycotted American corn until the American government promised more effective inspection techniques...
...with Starlink, the effects are greater than any computer chip mixup. Upon close scrutiny, though, this episode corroborates the view that GM biotechnology fails in both its short term and long term goals. In the short term, apart from the fact that the allergens were not supposed to be in the food in the first place, their presence defeats any notions of increased agricultural productivity. Anyone who's ever suffered from a food allergy will agree that they'd prefer to have less food than something that will send them into shock...
...time threat to public health is terrible; a cyclic recurrence would be far worse. Yet this is just what we face, since the modification of any genome is irreversible. Apart from the fact that GM foods can threaten our health, there exists a greater danger that such genes can never be "recalled." Once a gene is released into the environment, human control over it diminishes greatly. If our scientific assessments on the safety of our technology are wrong--and the StarLink case proves that such things do happen--then there can be no effective, corrective action. Even if the government...