GMO Research
Text: To the editor Michael Reiss’s recent editorial downplaying the ethical value of labeling except in cases of extreme need (e.g., for highly allergenic foods) misses the point entirely. Labeling of a new product with a poor or untested track record for human health consequences is a moral imperative from the vantage point of public …
Text: I am writing in response to the Editorial in the December issue entitled “Label without a cause,”1 which contained factual errors. The statement “Perhaps Vermont’s legislators should consider ‘may contain’ labels for radioisotopes, mercury, cadmium, bird feces, microbial poisons and explosives—ingredients that are present in all foods, albeit at undetectable levels” is wrong on …
Abstract: More and more investigations indicate that genetic modification has no significant or persistent effects on microbial community composition in the rice rhizosphere. Very few studies, however, have focused on its impact on functional microorganisms. This study completed a 13C-CO2pulse-chase labeling experiment comparing the potential effects of cry1Ab gene transformation on 13C tissue distribution and …
Abstract: Roundup is a postemergence herbicide acting on the synthesis of amino acids and other important endogenous chemicals in plants. Roundup is commonly used in agriculture, forestry, and nurseries for the control or destruction of most herbaceous plants. The present study shows that Roundup is able to induce a dose-dependent formation of DNA adducts in …
Text: Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not high on most physicians’ worry lists. If we think at all about biotechnology, most of us probably focus on direct threats to human health, such as prospects for converting pathogens to biologic weapons or the implications of new technologies for editing the human germline. But while those debates …
Abstract: This article presents a review about the labeling of products that have Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), also called transgenic elements in their composition. It addresses the conventions, laws and regulations relating to such products currently governing the market, the adequacy of these existing standards and their acceptance by society. It also examines the importance …
Text: We are writing to urge AAAS to reconsider its policy against mandated labeling of so-called genetically modified (GM) foods (1). We do not, as a group, have any position on GM foods, for or against, but we are concerned that AAAS’s position represents a poorly informed approach to communicating science. Successful communication requires mutual …
Abstract: In this study, cell death detected by DNA fragmentation labeling and phosphatidylserine (PS) localization was investigated in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) midgut, salivary glands and ovaries after treating larvae with different pesticides offered via an artificial diet. To do this, honey bee larvae reared in an incubator were exposed to one of …
Text: It is indeed a fortunate facet of science that the quantitative aspect of authorship does not dictate the validity of the conclusions! The impetus for my commentary was my repeated laboratory observation that the slightest genetic modification of a cell leads to completely unpredicted phenotypes. A careful reading of the plant literature supported my …
Abstract: The development of GM foods and organisms has concentrated everyone’s attention on the importance of food safety and on protecting citizens’ health, and inevitably influenced healthcare policies regarding food safety. Personal ethical beliefs regarding food and in particular, the consumption of foods derived from biotechnology should be taken into account when deciding healthcare policy. …
Abstract: This article documents the early warning signs of health and environmental dangers of DDT, vinyl chloride, and leaded gasoline. In each case, industry scientists and/or public health officials warned of potential hazards but their advice was ignored at great cost to human health and the environment. Now, genetically engineered (GE) foods have been introduced …
Abstract: Though scientists believe that issues of risk can be handled without appeal to values in general or ethics in particular, this is demonstrably false. The very notion of risk is enmeshed in a complex of social ethics. This is clearly true with regard to food safety. With this in mind, it is plausible to …
Text: Unlike Walker and Lonsdale (2000), in Minnesota we don’t consider the debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to be a “dialogue of the deaf.” Nor would we agree that the position of GMO proponents, i.e., the “scientists and technocrats,” is supported by “hard data,” while the “environmentalists” are the only ones making “alarmist claims.” …
Abstract: Rice is one of the staple foods of the Iraqi population; therefore large amounts of rice cultivated and imported in Iraq. Because of increasing the production of GM crops especially rice crop, it was necessary to investigate if there is any genetically modified rice (GM rice) in Baghdad markets. Conventional PCR and Real-Time PCR …
Abstract: Consumers in the United States are unaware that they have high daily and long-term exposure levels to novel and untested genetically modified substances through a heavy consumption of genetically modified plant food (“GM food”). This ignorance exists because labeling of GM ingredients on food packaging is not required by the Food & Drug Administration …
Abstract: Genetic modification or GMO is a new technology that assures to give food security to the developing nations. Commercial growth of genetically modified crops has been increasing very rapidly. But some disagreements are also associated of using genetically modified crops. Though GM crops promises to give the food security to developing countries, at the …
Abstract: The risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are evaluated traditionally by combining hazard identification and exposure estimates to provide decision support for regulatory agencies. We question the utility of the classical risk paradigm and discuss its evolution in GMO risk assessment. First, we consider the problem of uncertainty, by comparing risk assessment for environmental …
Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the effects of transgenic plants, also known as Genetically Modified Organisms, and food safety. Modern biotechnologies are powerfull tools in reprogramming life. However, a major problem in the risk assessment of the organisms produced by biotechnology is that the outcome of transformations can not be fully foreseen. Potential …
Abstract: In order to detect presence and quantity of Roundup Ready (RR) soybean in crude oil extracted from soybean seed with a different percentage of GMO seed two extraction methods were used, CTAB and DNeasy Plant Mini Kit. The amplifications of lectin gene, used to check the presence of soybean DNA, were not achieved in …
Abstract: Genetic engineering of food plants may carry allergic properties of the donor source into the recipient plant, and current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations are inadequate to protect the public from exposure to the resultant allergenic foods. A recent study examined the effect of introducing Brazil nut genes into soy beans, which was …
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to provide nutrition educators with an introduction to a range of considerations and forces that are driving the application of modern biotechnology in the food and fiber sector based on a food systems perspective. In doing so, the following issues are critically assessed: (1) the global debate on …
Abstract: The global expansion in the development and cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops has increased international concern about adventitious presence of GM materials in non-GM seeds and grains. GM events in canola, corn, soybean, cotton, flax, papaya, potato, squash, sugar beet, and tomato have received regulatory approval in Canada. However, GM cultivars are only …
Text: Since they were first commercially grown in the mid-1990s, genetically engineered (GE) crops have expanded across the globe, offering farmers the advantages of genetically enhanced resistance to drought, herbicides, and insects. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications (ISAAA), a crop biotechnology advocacy organization, farmers in 29 countries grew nearly …
