Word: starlink
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...what about the international spat over the presence of Cry9C, a protein produced in genetically modified StarLink corn to kill the European corn borer, a common pest? U.S. exports to Asia have suffered because of fear that Cry9C could cause food allergies. The chance that this protein could cause of food allergy is miniscule; its structure differs from known allergens and there have been no reported cases of an allergic reaction. Its presence might even be healthy: farmers need to use less pesticide if the plant provides its own protection. You may have already eaten some Cry9C in your corn...
...September, GM corn was discovered in tacos sold in the United States. The strain of corn, known as StarLink, has been altered so that it can "naturally" produce a toxin for corn borers, one of the more significant pests that plague corn crops. The pesticide produced by the artificially enhanced corn, however, is not quite as harmless to human health as initially predicted: the transplanted gene also codes for a human allergen. Recognizing the uncertainty, if not the danger, involved with this GM organism, the U.S. government revoked the right of Aventis--the company that produces StarLink--to plant...
Despite these restrictions, last month corn exported from the United States to Japan and meant for human and livestock consumption was also found to include some of the StarLink strain. Even without the danger of an adverse reaction in humans, the unexpected occurrence of modified genomes is an enormous ecological problem. Yet this time, because of the suspected threat to human health, the matter was significantly more than "theoretically" wrong. Despite a ban on the use of a GM organism in the United States, a possible health threat found its way into the food supply of another country from American...
...with Starlink, the effects are greater than any computer chip mixup. Upon close scrutiny, though, this episode corroborates the view that GM biotechnology fails in both its short term and long term goals. In the short term, apart from the fact that the allergens were not supposed to be in the food in the first place, their presence defeats any notions of increased agricultural productivity. Anyone who's ever suffered from a food allergy will agree that they'd prefer to have less food than something that will send them into shock...
...fact that GM foods can threaten our health, there exists a greater danger that such genes can never be "recalled." Once a gene is released into the environment, human control over it diminishes greatly. If our scientific assessments on the safety of our technology are wrong--and the StarLink case proves that such things do happen--then there can be no effective, corrective action. Even if the government revokes Aventis' right to plant corn because it causes allergies, the gene can pop up "unexpectedly" throughout the environment over a number of growing seasons. Our loss of long-term manipulative ability...