Scare stories bolster GE crusade

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK

The Royal Commission on Genetic Modification believes New Zealand should adopt a "proceed with caution" approach to genetic science.

But the term "caution" didn't go far enough for thousands of New Zealanders, who want genetic modification (GM) banned.

The public's distrust of genetic science is partly due to a number of scare stories, covering anything from experiments gone wrong to potatoes spliced with toad genes.

Here are some of the incidents which have inflamed the anti-GM movement.

ONE

In 1989 thousands of people in America were affected by a new illness, resulting in painful and swollen muscles, rashes and gastro-intestinal problems. The condition left 37 people dead and disabled 1500 others.

Authorities found that all of those affected had taken a health food supplement called L-tryptophan, used to treat conditions such as insomnia and depression.

The outbreak was traced to a Japanese company, which had used genetically modified material in the manufacturing processes.

But court authorities blamed the problem on a build-up of toxic contaminants in the product rather than genetic modification.

TWO

Last year, media worldwide publicised a German research project that claimed to have found evidence of genes spreading from GM plants into other forms of wildlife.

Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz said he had discovered genes from a GM crop of rape in the intestinal micro-organisms of honeybees.

But the scientific community described his results has inconclusive and refused to accept the research findings. Tests are continuing.

THREE

The work of British scientist Arpad Pusztai sparked a worldwide revolt against GM.

Pusztai said his experiment with potatoes, which were modified with a poisonous lectin gene lifted from the DNA of the snowdrop, caused gut damage in laboratory rats.

His point was that the GM process itself might have unforeseen effects.

The British Royal Society said Pusztai's experiment was "flawed in many aspects of design, execution and analysis and no conclusions should be drawn from it ... and it would be unjustifiable to draw from them general conclusions about whether GM foods are harmful to human beings."

FOUR

In 1998, the United States Environmental Protection Agency approved GM corn for animal feed.

It was marketed as Starlink and, because the EPA could not be certain the corn would not cause allergic reaction in humans, it was not approved for human consumption.

Last year, environmental and food safety groups in America said fragments of the protein with which the corn was genetically modified had been found in taco shells sold to American consumers.

Corn-derived food products were whipped off supermarket shelves and food companies began testing their products for contamination from Starlink.

FIVE

Last year a New Zealand salmon-farming company accused of breeding mutant chinook salmon killed all its genetically engineered fish and buried their remains.

Anti-GM groups fought for more than a year to stop NZ king salmon from breeding GM fish after leaked papers showed deformed heads and other abnormalities had occurred during the breeding programme.

The so-called "Franken-fish" experiment, involving a new growth-hormone gene, led to the salmon growing three times faster the normal rate. Some of the fish developed lumps on their heads due to apparent genetic deformities.

SIX

Australian scientists this year reported a GM experiment which accidentally created a deadly version of mouse smallpox in the laboratory.

They said a similar change in human smallpox could produce a far more virulent strain which could even be resistant to vaccines.

Smallpox, a much feared disease in the 20th century, was eradicated by a huge vaccination programme.

SEVEN

Over the past few years various researchers in the US have claimed to have evidence that pollen from maize genetically engineered to resist a common pest could kill monarch butterflies.

Toxins produced in the roots of Bt corn, which is engineered to resist corn borer, were also found to be leaking into the soil and killing larvae.

EIGHT

Police in Italy raided a warehouse of US biotech company Monsanto this year and seized 112 tonnes of genetically modified maize, the use of which is illegal in that country.

Italian Health Ministry tests of the maize revealed the presence of the banned genetically engineered strain developed by Monsanto.

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