Genetically Modified Organisms: Danger!

or: Genetically Modified Organisms.

In its February 2001 issue No. 60, the journal
Sciences Frontières ( http://www.sciencefrontieres.com)
8 bis rue du Chemin de Fer, 94110 Arcueil

publishes remarks collected by Eric Bony, attributed to Professor
Jean-Marie PELT, president of the European Institute of Ecology
in Metz, founder of CRIIGEN, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering. Here are these
remarks:


...Proponents of GMOs argue that transgenesis has existed for millennia in Nature... This is true, but genes pass from one plant to another, from one animal to another, within the framework of the barriers that separate species from one another. What strikes me is that the major diseases we have experienced over the past twenty years, AIDS and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, result from the passage of viruses or prions across the species barrier. ... However, regarding transgenic plants, genes from one species are inserted into another, and the risk we take is that unexpected recombinations may occur, leading to the emergence of new pathogens and new diseases against which we will be completely defenseless. ... In fact, genetic engineering is still in its infancy, and it is incomprehensible that, in a field where we lack fundamental science that is even roughly coherent in its theories and understanding of phenomena, we apply technological procedures that are not confirmed by fundamental science. To put it bluntly, transgenism is coming too soon: we do not know how it works in Nature, yet we want to apply it.

...Proponents of GMOs argue that transgenesis has existed for millennia in Nature... This is true, but genes pass from one plant to another, from one animal to another, within the framework of the barriers that separate species from one another. What strikes me is that the major diseases we have experienced over the past twenty years, AIDS and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, result from the passage of viruses or prions across the species barrier. ... However, regarding transgenic plants, genes from one species are inserted into another, and the risk we take is that unexpected recombinations may occur, leading to the emergence of new pathogens and new diseases against which we will be completely defenseless. ... In fact, genetic engineering is still in its infancy, and it is incomprehensible that, in a field where we lack fundamental science that is even roughly coherent in its theories and understanding of phenomena, we apply technological procedures that are not confirmed by fundamental science. To put it bluntly, transgenism is coming too soon: we do not know how it works in Nature, yet we want to apply it.

....The Sorcerer's Apprentice....