General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: GMO's are they safe? There is no way to be sure yet...there are no absolutes in young science... [View all]pnwmom
(108,959 posts)You are right that the large majority of scientists take this position. But the research that is out there is limited by the constraints put on it by the GMO producers. The scientists in the minority (including the UCLA cellular biologist quoted below) may turn out to be correct -- at least for some particular GMO products.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-truth-about-genetically-modified-food/
Across campus, David Williams, a cellular biologist who specializes in vision, has the opposite complaint. A lot of naive science has been involved in pushing this technology, he says. Thirty years ago we didn't know that when you throw any gene into a different genome, the genome reacts to it. But now anyone in this field knows the genome is not a static environment. Inserted genes can be transformed by several different means, and it can happen generations later. The result, he insists, could very well be potentially toxic plants slipping through testing.
Williams concedes that he is among a tiny minority of biologists raising sharp questions about the safety of GM crops. But he says this is only because the field of plant molecular biology is protecting its interests. Funding, much of it from the companies that sell GM seeds, heavily favors researchers who are exploring ways to further the use of genetic modification in agriculture. He says that biologists who point out health or other risks associated with GM cropswho merely report or defend experimental findings that imply there may be risksfind themselves the focus of vicious attacks on their credibility, which leads scientists who see problems with GM foods to keep quiet.