Putting sense in the heads of scientists promoting GE crops.

April 11, 2007

How To Confine the Plants of the Future Source:The New York TimesAuthor:Denise Caruso This opinion piece argues that in the context of genetically modified (GM) crops engineered to produce drugs and chemicals, "decisions about risk cannot safely be made in a private club that accepts only its members' notions of scientific evidence". The opinion piece discusses how Jerome Ravetz, an associate fellow at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the U.K.'s University of Oxford, sees a crisis in "official scientific expertise" that stems from conflicting roles of government. On the one side, Ravetz argues, biotechnology businesses provide regulators with scientific evidence about the

risk and safety of their product innovations. On the other, suspicious citizens demand that regulators challenge that evidence. The opinion piece says that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which just approved another Ventria trial of GM "pharma" rice, "seems to rejectreasonable, science-based" public health concerns about these crops, such as those expressed by Norman C. Ellstrand, professor of genetics at the University of California in the U.S. Ellstrand has cast doubt on whether biological containment measures proposed by biotechnology companies will always be able to prevent GM-produced pharmaceuticals from entering the human food supply. The opinion piece argues that a new policy framework is needed under which developers must subject their inventions to the "helpful scrutiny of people outside the club - before radical technologies like biopharma are

brought to market." The author is executive director of the Hybrid Vigor Institute in the U.S., which studies collaborative problem-solving. The opinion piece can be viewed online at the link below. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/business/yourmoney/08frame.html?pagewanted=print US: 1 in 150 children has Autism US: 1 in 6 children suffers a developmental disorder New Jersey: 1 in 94 has Autism UK: 1 in 86 has Autism China : Over 20 lakh autistic children,India : No authentic figures, expected 40 lakh +AUTISM IS NOTHING BUT MERCURY POISONING.THERE IS MERCURY IN VACCINES!!

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