RESOURCES: DOCUMENTS
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OF GMO RISKS
"Modern man does not experience himself as part of nature, but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it. He even talks of a battle with nature – forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side."
– Fritz Schumacher, Small is Beautiful
See also downloads and recommended reading
Documents listed in alphabetical order by their organisational source:
Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews
Safety Testing and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods (Press release) (23 November 2004). This press release announces the publication of a peer-reviewed scientific paper which debunks the myth that genetically modified (GM) crops are thoroughly tested, regulated and proven safe. Authors Dr. David Schubert (cell biologist and medical researcher at California's Salk Institute) and William Freese (research analyst with Friends of the Earth U.S.) base their meticulously documented, 25-page paper on nearly 100 sources, including little-known U.S. regulatory documents and unpublished studies by biotech companies. This paper reveals fundamental flaws in how biotech companies test and the U.S. government regulates GM crops. The paper thus raises serious questions about whether GM foods, which have been on the market since 1994, are in fact safe, as claimed by the biotech industry and U.S. regulators. The full paper is published in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews, volume 21, available from Intercept Limited, P.O. box 716, Andover, Hants SP10 1YG, UK; tel + 44 (0) 1264 334 748, fax + 44 (0) 1264 334 058; e-mail: intercept@andover.co.uk; web: www.intercept.co.uk/gb/index.html.
BioTech InfoNet
Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: (11/25/2003).
ECO-RISK Office of Ecological Risk Research
Concepts for Coexistence; commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health and Women (9/11/2003).
EU Joint Scientific Research Centre (JRC)
Scenarios for co-existence
of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops in European agriculture.
This official and detailed 133 page report by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre found that GM contamination is almost impossible to avoid and would cause higher production costs (up to 40% for oilseed rape) for EU farmers. (May 2002, 1MB pdf file).
GM-free Cymru (GM-free Wales)
GM maize conspiracy revealed
Press release from GM-free Cymry, 24 May 2005, revealing the full extent of a conspiracy by UK and EC officials which has, against the public interest, enabled a highly damaging study on the safety of GM maize to be held on a secret dossier and which has gagged scientists who have seen it.
Independent Science Panel on GM (ISP)
The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World (06/20/2003).
A complete dossier of evidence on the known problems and hazards of GM crops as well as on the manifold benefits of sustainable agriculture. Published by the Independent Science Panel on GM (consisting of dozens of prominent scientists from seven countries, spanning the disciplines of agroecology, agronomy, biomathematics, botany, chemical medicine, ecology, histopathology, microbial ecology, molecular genetics, nutritional biochemistry, physiology, toxicology and virology), and the Third World Network. 15 June 2003. (136 pages, 408kb PDF file).
Argentina: The Track Record of GMOs, by Adolpho Boy (Grupo de Reflexión Rural and Red Por Una América Latina Libre De Transgénicos / Network for a Latin America Free of Transgenics).
Austria Raises Hell Over GM Safety: Austrian Observations on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture
2004. ISP members Susan Bardocz, Mae-Wan Ho and Arpad Pusztai among others, briefed representatives of the Austrian government and Austrian ngos in a workshop held in Vienna last November. One of the Austrian government representatives, Josef Hoppichler, subsequently breifed the US-Embassy in Austria. The US Embassy staff were so impressed that Hoppichler's briefing was translated and circulated by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service under Global Agriculture Information Network (GAIN).
Genetic Engineering Dangers & Impacts: Lessons from Real Life, by Lim Li Ching.
GM Forest Trees - The Ultimate Threat,
by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins.
ISP Letter to U.S. FDA
19.01.05, from Dr. Mae-Wan Ho.
For many more scientific papers on GM risks, visit the ISP web site at www.indsp.org.
International Federation of Organic Agriculure Movements (IFOAM)
IFOAM EU group position paper on co-existence between GM and non-GM crops (03/12/2004).
Jeffrey M. Smith
Eating Genetically Modified Food is Gambling With Your Health.
Article by Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing Corporate and Government Lies about the Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods (see below).
Genetically Modified Foods are Inherently Unsafe.
Information flyer by Jeffrey M. Smith (see below).
Seeds of Deception:
exposing corporate and government lies about the safety of genetically engineered food
By Jeffrey M. Smith, with a foreword by former UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher MP who said "This is a brilliant book which combines shrewd dissection of the true nature of GM technology, a devastating critique of the health and environmental hazards of GM crops, and scarifying examples of the manipulation of both science and the media by the biotech industry. It is a call to arms, not only to prevent the contamination of the nation's food supply, but even more to tackle the poisoning of the nation's decision-making system by the undercover wielding of economic and financial muscle and PR manipulativeness of Big Biotech."
On sale at the Cultivate bookshop, Essex St. West, Temple Bar, Dublin, tel (01) 491 2327. Website: www.seedsofdeception.com.
Soil Association
Briefing: University of Newcastle research on the transfer of DNA from GM food into bacteria in the human gut (05/16/2005).
GM food: scientific evidence of health risks (04/30/2004).
Contrasting the use of genetic engineering in medicine and agriculture (04/30/2004).
GM - update and suggestions for action (04/27/2004).
GM maize - the risks (03/31/2004).
GM - Unravelling the DNA myth (03/26/2004).
GM Research: A gut feeling (03/11/2004).
Genetic Engineering and Consumer Choice (02/19/2004).
L-tryptophan: what made this GM food supplement kill 37 people and disable 1500? (02/09/2004).
Impacts of GM crops on agrochemical use in the US 01/08/2004.
Genetic engineering and human health (11/17/2003).
Genetic engineering - the key issues (11/17/2003).
Seeds of Doubt Executive Summary (11/17/2003).
GM Food: Evaluating the Farm Scale Trials (11/2003).
Union of Concerned Scientists
Reports
Gone to Seed: Transgenic Contaminants in the Traditional Seed Supply. 80 pages, 1MB pdf file.
By Margaret Mellon and Jane Rissler, Union of Concerned Scientists, 2004. This report reveals that seeds of traditional crops are contaminated with DNA from genetically engineered (GE) crops. Laboratory testing of traditional (non-GE) seeds of corn, soybeans, and canola commissioned by UCS documents the presence of DNA commonly used in commercial GE crops. These findings suggest inadequate U.S. federal standards to protect our seed supply and our food from harmful contaminants like those originating in pharmaceutical and industrial crops ("pharma" crops).
Pharmaceutical and Industrial Crops: A Growing Concern
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1561
Genetically Engineered Crops & Pesticide Use
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1542
Activism
Endorse restrictions on pharma crops
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1580
Updates
USDA Imposes New Controls on Pharm Crops
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1139
FAQs: Pharmaceutical and Industrial Crops
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1579
FAQs: Seed Contamination
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1339
FAQs: Biotechnology
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=318
Backgrounders
What Is Biotechnology?
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=340
What Is Genetic Engineering?
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=341
Genetic Engineering Techniques
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=345
Risks of Genetic Engineering
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=346
Alternatives to Genetic Engineering
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=348
How Does Seed Contamination Occur?
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1372
World Food Supply
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=331
Biotechnology Policy
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=342
Genetically Engineered Salmon
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=327
Substances in Pharmaceutical and Industrial Crops
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1373
Guides
Engineered Foods Allowed on the Market
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=337
Letters and Comments
CDFA: Pharm Rice in California
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1376
USDA: Commercialization of GE Bentgrass
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1374
USDA/APHIS: Pharm Crop Regulation
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1190
EPA: Registration of Stacked Bt Genes in Corn
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1192
USDA/FDA: Pharm Crops Regulation
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1114
EPA: Renewal of Bt-Crop Registrations
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=317
EPA: New Bt Crops
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=362
EPA: Rootworm Bt Corn 2002
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1014
EPA: Rootworm Bt Corn 2001
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=372
EPA: Rootworm Bt Corn 2000
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=374
USDA: Abandon Terminator Patents
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=364
USDA: Implement NAS Recommendations
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=840
Viewpoints
UCS's Position on Biotechnology
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/page.cfm?pageID=1029
University of Bergen Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
World Health Organisation (WHO)
Safety aspects of genetically modified foods of plan origin (6/2/2000).
Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Genetically Modified
Animals, including Fish (11/21/2003).
