Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
disable hundreds or thousands of people in an instant. Still, at this stage,
the uncertainties
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surrounding the toxicity issue, the dissemination issue,
and the mutagenic potential are calling for close monitoring of any
adverse effect. StarLink and ProdiGene are two emblematic examples
of such unwanted events. They certainly both revealed a lack of “safety
culture.”
To a certain extent, the mutagenic potential that GM crops pose for
the human body and the environment are similar to the potential of
low radiation. These are hazards where the timeline question is particu-
larly complex to evaluate, as the long-term effects might not be measur-
able nor visible for years or decades. In the case of GM plants, it might
even been trickier: genetic mutation induced by radioactive exposure is
much more documented than the potential genetic disorders induced by
long-term ingestion of GMOs, or dissemination and cross-pollination of
GMOs (creating super-bugs and super-plants).
In this respect, GM crop growing could be considered as a high-
hazards industry, because it is bound to adopt very strict and tight regu-
lation to prevent or deal with any unwanted consequences that at the
moment are not totally envisioned nor proven (Marvier et al., 2007).
In addition, failure during operations is not yet well characterized. As
things stand, storage mingling between GM and non-GM products seems
to qualify as failure, but such events do not prompt the same worry as
a chemical spillover for example. As Armin Sp ok suggests in his chap-
ter (Chapter 7), it might be different for the third generation of GMOs,
the plant-made pharmaceuticals, GM crop-produced vaccines, and other
pharmaceutical products. GM drug-producing crops could contaminate
GM and non-GM food crops and derivative food products, as in the
Prodigene incident and ultimately impact food consumers. For these
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As a recall, seven types of risk apply to GMOs, summarized by Pretty (2001): “1) Hor-
izontal gene flows; 2) New forms of resistance and pest problems; 3) Recombination to
produce new pathogens; 4) Direct and indirect effects of novel toxins; 5) Loss of bio-
diversity from changes to farm practices; 6) Allergenic and immune system reactions;
7) Antibiotic resistance marker genes.”
