Genetically Modified Organisms: danger!
or: Genetically Modified Organisms.
In its February 2001 issue number 60, the magazine Sciences Frontières (http://www.sciencefrontieres.com) 8 bis rue du Chemin de Fer, 94110 Arcueil
publishes statements collected by Eric Bony, from Professor Jean-Marie PELT, president of the European Institute of Ecology in Metz, founder of CRIIGEN, the Independent Research and Information Committee on Genetic Engineering. Here are these statements:
Supporters of GMOs claim that transgenesis has existed for thousands of years in nature... This is true, but genes pass from one plant to another, from one animal to another, within the boundaries that separate species from each other. What strikes me is that the major diseases we have experienced in the last twenty years, AIDS and Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, result from the passage of viruses or prions across the species barrier.
However, with regard to transgenic plants, genes from one species are inserted into another, and the risk we take is that unexpected recombinations may occur and new pathogenic agents and new diseases may appear, against which we would be completely defenseless.
In fact, genetic engineering is still in its infancy, and it is incomprehensible, in a field where we do not have a reasonably coherent fundamental science in its theories and understanding of phenomena, to apply technological procedures not confirmed by fundamental science. In short, transgenesis comes too early: we do not know how it works in nature, and yet we want to apply it.
....The Sorcerer's Apprentice....