I received this recently. It just never ceases to amaze me how faced with the wholesale destruction of our food sources, the dance we can do to avoid reality goes on!

SUNFLOWER STUDY IS IRRELEVANT August 8, 2002 University of Nebraska and Indiana University Via AgBioView at www.agbioworld.org Colleagues, On August 8, Allison Snow revealed research she conducted with colleagues at the University of Nebraska and Indiana University which showed for the first time that transgenes from a crop can outcross to a wild, weedy relative and make the weed fitter to survive in its natural environment. I would strongly caution everyone about the use of this research. While interesting, it is merely another unfortunate example of irrelevance bias. Irrelevance bias occurs when an experiment makes an irrelevant comparison (or no comparison at all), yielding results inherently biased against the technology being tested. The most widely-known example of irrelevance bias is John Losey¹s experiment involving force-feeding Bt pollen to monarch butterfly larvae and comparing the result to monarchs consuming no Bt pollen. To be relevant, the study would have included forcing a group of monarch larvae to consume a chemical insecticide, but it didn¹t. The biased result, which made it appear as though Bt maize was dangerous for butterflies, triggered Europe¹s de facto ban on new approvals of GM crops. With respect to Snow¹s study, the relevant question is whether transgenes confer greater benefits on weedy relatives than the genes from conventional crops. This study made no attempt to answer that question, inviting the conclusion that genetic engineering is inherently more of an environmental concern than conventional breeding. That conclusion cannot be reached on the basis of Snow¹s study, because the study, by design, is irrelevant.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), August 12, 2002

Answers

Sigh, tax dollars at work.

Soon the gmo foods will be everywhere and who knows what will transpire. GMO labelling please! have a day as you wish it to be.

-- jonathan (jonathan_sz@yahoo.com), August 12, 2002.