Tag: GMOs

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Monsanto chief admits ‘hubris’ is to blame for public fears over GM

cornpharma

cornpharma

Monsanto chief admits ‘hubris’ is to blame for public fears over GM
OLIVER WRIGHT Monday 23 March 2015

The American company that produced the world’s first genetically modified crop has admitted for the first time that its “hubris” in promoting the technology contributed to a consumer backlash against genetically modified food.

Speaking to The Independent, the chief executive of Monsanto conceded that the company had failed to appreciate public concerns over GM technology when it was introduced nearly 20 years ago.

And he also said that the company had suffered by making “the wrong call” when it failed to rebrand itself in the aftermath of the botched launch of GM in Europe.

But Hugh Grant claimed that unless public attitudes towards biotechnology changed it would be impossible to feed the world’s growing population and called for a more nuanced debate on the potential uses for GM technology in the developing world.

“There never had been a lot of trust in companies, particularly not big companies and certainly not big American companies,” he said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/monsanto-chief-admits-hubris-is-to-blame-for-public-fears-over-gm-10128951.html

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Who’s afraid of GMOs? Let’s serve up science without scare stories and eat without fear

Pocketbook Pressures

Who’s afraid of GMOs? Let’s serve up science without scare stories and eat without fear
By John Stossel
Published May 28, 2014
FoxNews.com

It’s easy to scare people about what’s in their food, but the danger is almost never real. And the fear itself kills.

Take the panic over genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Ninety percent of all corn grown in America is genetically modified now. That means it grew from a seed that scientists altered by playing with its genes. The new genes may make corn grow faster, or they may make it less appetizing to bugs so farmers can use fewer pesticides.

We didn’t even know what genes were when we first created new strains of plants and animals. There’s no reason to believe modern methods of altering genes are any more dangerous.

This upsets some people. GMOs are “unnatural,” they say. A scene from the movie “Seeds of Death” warns that eating GMOs “causes holes in the GI tract” and “causes multiple organ system failure.”

The restaurant chain Chipotle, which prides itself on using organic ingredients, produces videos suggesting that industrial agriculture is evil, including a comedic Web series called “Farmed and Dangerous” about an evil agricultural feed company that threatens to kill its opponents and whose products cause cows to explode.

Michael Hansen of Consumer Reports sounds almost as frightening when he talks about GMOs. On my Fox Business show, “Stossel,” he says, “It’s called insertional mutagenesis … you can’t control where you’re inserting that genetic information; it can have different effects depending on the location.”

Jon Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project responds: “We’ve eaten about 7 trillion meals in the 18 years since GMOs first came on the market. There’s not one documented instance of someone getting so much as a sniffle.”

Given all the fear from media and activists, you might be surprised to learn that most serious scientists agree with him. “There have been about 2,000 studies,” says Entine, and “there is no evidence of human harm in a major peer-reviewed journal.”

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/28/who-afraid-gmos-let-serve-up-science-without-scare-stories-and-eat-without-fear/

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HAWAII IS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROP FLASH POINT

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HAWAII IS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROP FLASH POINT

BY AUDREY MCAVOY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WAIALUA, Hawaii (AP) — You can trace the genetic makeup of most corn grown in the U.S., and in many other places around the world, to Hawaii.

The tiny island state 2,500 miles from the nearest continent is so critical to the nation’s modern corn-growing business that the industry’s leading companies all have farms here, growing new varieties genetically engineered for desirable traits like insect and drought resistance.

But these same farms have become a flash point in a spreading debate over genetic engineering in agriculture.

Kauai and Hawaii counties have moved in the past several months to regulate genetically modified organisms and the pesticides the farms use. In Maui County, a group is collecting signatures for a potential ballot measure that would impose a temporary ban on the crops.

“People are very concerned, and it’s my job as a council member to determine whether those concerns are valid and take steps to protect them,” said Gary Hooser, a councilman in Kauai.

Hooser and the council passed a law last year, over the mayor’s veto, to require large farms to create buffer zones around their crops and to disclose what pesticides they use. The law is set to take effect in August.

Seed companies with Kauai operations – Syngenta, Pioneer, BASF and Agrigentics – have sued the county to stop the law, saying they are already regulated by state and federal laws and there is no need for additional county rules.

“We don’t plant anything that isn’t permitted and approved through the proper regulatory agencies, be it the EPA, the FDA and UDSA,” said Mark Phillipson, the head of Hawaii corporate affairs for Syngenta, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FOOD_AND_FARM_SEED_FARMING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-19-09-55-39