North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[list@ginda.us]

Thanks for your informed opinion.  I have been leaning the same way.  
Basically, I think genetic engineering has a lot of promise, but I am 
appalled at the lack of regulatory oversight.  Inserting fish genes 
into fruits might have benefits, but surely the product ought to be 
tested for safety before being mixed, unlabeled, into the general food 
supply.

And I simply can't buy the idea that it's too hard to keep, for 
instance, genetically modified soy separate from other soy.  If we can 
keep track of dozens of grains and their variants, we can add some more 
variants.  The problem is not that it's too expensive to keep track, 
the problem is that the price of the untested genetically engineered 
food drops too far if it can be identified as such.

Off my soapbox again,
Ginda

On Feb 10, 2004, at 8:25 PM, Art Petrzelka wrote:

> I bought the story about curing all of mankind's ailments, too.
>
> But the more I learn about genetic engineering, the less I like it.
> I say this as someone who has spent part of my career in agriculture,
> and part of my career in FDA validation. I have helped set standards 
> for
> internal validation efforts, and have been involved in cosmetic and
> pharmaceutical validation.
>
> The current crop of GMOs appear to have taken a shortcut across the
> normal FDA validation process. They were unique enough that they got a
> patent, but apparently not unique enough that food safety testing was
> done. I don't see how it could be both. I attended a lecture at Iowa
> State University by Dr. Arpad Puszta, from Great Britain, in December.
> Dr. Puszta is the man whose research was destroyed and whose reputation
> was slandered when his study on the nutritional effects of GM potatoes
> showed necrosis in rodents.
>
> It looks like we've been sold a bill of goods with genetic engineering.
> I would be glad to share some references for what I've found off-list 
> if
> anyone is interested.
>
> My main concern is that we not pollute our genetic resources. This 
> isn't
> a concern with Frankenfood, it's a concern about the lack of knowledge
> that we have on the effects of gene insertion, gene removal, and 
> general
> DNA helix tampering with respect to helix sequence and angles. The
> effects of genetic engineering are largely unknown, and what we do know
> is very incriminating.
>
> On Mon, 2004-02-09 at 21:57, Rodney Eveland wrote:
> > The people who genetically modify plants to get a desired result have
> > already developed a PPV resistant plum. Interestingly enough, if you
> > use google and search on a lot of common serious plant diseases and
> > add the word biotechnology to your search you will find that they are
> > trying to solve many of the major diseases by using genetc
> > modification. I don't know where this will take us, but I'm hoping for
> --
> Art Petrzelka
> Amana, Iowa, USA
> USDA Hardiness Zone 5a
>
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