Scientist explains why his paper on the flow of transgenes into wild maize met fierce opposition

[JohnyCanuck]

Ignacio Chapela, a microbial ecologist and mycologist at the University of California-Berkeley, explains why his paper on the flow of transgenes into wild maize populations met with fierce opposition when published in 2001 in Nature. This interview was held on 27th March 2014 in Brussels at the Kaaitheater, where Ignacio Chapela spoke at the conference entitled 'The Promised Land of Transgenic Crops', opening the Burning Ice #7 festival.

Embedded video at link:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php/videos/corporations-videos/15850-ignacio-chapela-explains-why-his-maize-findings-met-with-fierce-opposition

In a nutshell, certain powerful economic interests were not happy with Chapela's paper and the implications it held regarding the wisdom of releasing GMOs into the environment on a widespread basis.

Immoral Maize: Extract from Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat by Andrew Rowell

snip

In contrast to the agricultural officials, others were worried, and started to replicate the research. As Quist and Chapela outline: ‘During the review period of this manuscript, the Mexican government … established an independent research effort. Their results, published through official government press releases, confirm the presence of transgenic DNA in landrace genomes in two Mexican states, including Oaxaca’. [14] On 17 September 2001, Mexico’s Secretary for Environmental and Natural Resources released partial results of its own study, confirming that transgenic maize had been found in 15 of 22 areas tested in Oaxaca and nearby Puebla. [15]

snip

The scientists were both ‘surprised and dismayed’ over their findings, but admitted they had no way of knowing whether the contamination was from a loose implementation of the moratorium or due ‘to introgression before 1998 followed by the survival of transgenes in the population’. [16]

‘Whatever the source, it’s clear that genes are somehow moving from bioengineered corn to native corn’, says Chapela. ‘This is very serious because the regions where our samples were taken are known for their diverse varieties of native corn, which is something that absolutely needs to be protected. This native corn is also less vulnerable to disease, pest outbreaks and climatic changes.’ [17]

Once again it was time to shoot the messenger. ‘We are just facing every single level of intimidation and aggression that you can imagine’, says Chapela. ‘It is obviously very well funded and very well coordinated’. ‘The main attack, the most damaging attack’ came ‘from my own colleagues within the university’, says Chapela, ‘who are mad at me because I stood up against Novartis coming in with US$50 million and buying the whole college. It has to be said that the immediate consequences might be very dire for me as my tenure is being reviewed.’

http://powerbase.info/index.php/Immoral_Maize:_Extract_from_Don%27t_Worry,_It%27s_Safe_to_Eat_by_Andrew_Rowell

[mmonk]

1. Sounds like what would happen if his study was introduced on DU.