Greens attempting to thwart science progress

[BTox]

Don't these dopes have something better to do, like chase down whalers?

suit against biotech

 

[Yahweh]

"This lawsuit can only serve to impede the potential medical benefits of the technology," said Lisa Dry, a spokeswoman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Speaks for itself, its just enviromentalist whining...

 

[Scoobmaster]

"The existing regulatory system merely assumes that growing these crops is harmless, even in places where they can contaminate the environment and get into the food supply," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director for Center for Food Safety.

And just *HOW* would these crops "contaminate the environment??!!

 

[tracer]

And just *HOW* would these crops "contaminate the environment??!!

The usual thinking is this:

Take a typical bioengineered crop -- say, Starlink corn. Now, Starlink corn contains a protein molecule that doesn't appear in normal, non-bioengineered corn. When subjected to digestive enzymes, this protein takes a long time to break down. Therefore, it could be a potential allergen.

There may be a small segment of the population that could develop an allergy to this protein, much like there is a small segment of the population that is allergic to peanuts. Food allergies, as we know, can be life-threatening. The perceived danger is that if some people are allergic to the Starlink corn protein, they could drop dead from eating Kellogg's Corn Flakes because the crop of corn used to make that particular box of corn flakes happened to contain some Starlink corn that got in there by accident.

The Starlink corn, in that case, could be said to have "contaminated the food supply."

 

[Jon_in_london]

Now, Starlink corn contains a protein molecule that doesn't appear in normal, non-bioengineered corn. When subjected to digestive enzymes, this protein takes a long time to break down. Therefore, it could be a potential allergen.

Heres an article:

http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech_info/articles/interviews/activists.html

EPA nixed StarLink because the agency couldn't rule out the possibility that people might be allergic to it. The evidence for allergy wasn't strong --- the offending protein, called Cry9C, isn't quickly digested so the body has more time to react to it --- but there was enough doubt to ban human consumption. Even more worrisome, 51 people reported getting ill after eating corn products. Scientists were skeptical because StarLink levels were minuscule and the corn had been around only a short time.

Still, the FDA asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to test people who claimed the corn made them sick. From the 51 reports, CDC culled 28 people with symptoms fitting a real food allergy, then analyzed blood samples from 17 of them.

The results, reported on June 11, were striking. None of the samples contained antibodies to Cry9C protein. That's important because if the body doesn't make antibodies, it won't start the chain of events leading to allergy. In other words, although some people got sick after eating StarLink corn, it almost certainly wasn't from the biotech protein. An independent laboratory confirmed CDC's results.

 

[Matabiri]

And just *HOW* would these crops "contaminate the environment??!!

The more feared contamination, I think, is cross-pollination of regular crops to form Triffids, or somesuch.

(Of course, selective breeding and cross-pollination of farm crops has been going on for millenia, but don't tell anyone.)

Rich