No hay duda de que las plantas y los animales transgenicos son un tema de actualidad.
Ahora que grandes companias como Monsanto (con nuevo nombre porque fue adquirida por
otra compania mas grande), han empezado a incursionar en Colombia, y siendo una
realidad la entrada de plantas transgenicas a Colombia, creo que volver a poner el
tema para discusion vale la pena. Les envio comunicaciones sobre un par de
conferencias dictadas sobre el tema en una reunion en Oakland, el 13 de Diciembre.
Hernán Mauricio Romero
Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Physiology
The Pennsylvania State University
Following are the draft remarks of Peggy Lemaux of UC Berkeley and the ASPP
Committee on Public Affairs presented at the December 13, 1999 FDA public
meeting in Oakland
My name is Dr. Peggy Lemaux; I am a Cooperative Extension
Specialist at the University of California. Although
professionally I represent an important public institution, I
also grew up on a farm and am a consumer and a mother, concerned
about the nature and safety of our food supply. Since the 1970's
I have been engaged in the fields of classical genetics and
genetic engineering. As such, I am able to evaluate the
scientific risks involved in the use of these new tools to modify
plants.
Most individuals don't have this background. I don't have
the background to evaluate the vagaries of the stock market,
unfortunately. Because many individuals are not able to evaluate the new
food products being developed with classical and
modern genetic methods, regulatory agencies have that
responsibility; they must make decisions about risk, based on
sound science. Scientists have the responsibility to provide
additional independent assessments of risks through carefully
controlled, peer-reviewed studies. As consumers, we then can use
that information to help us make decisions about our own personal
safety, which we define as "acceptable risk".
In the popular press many articles discussing foods developed
through biotechnology have focused on possible or imagined risks.
This is a hallmark of the early stages of new technologies; it
occurred with pasteurization, vaccination and the use of the
microwave oven. Identifying risks is important. It's also
important to assess the technology's potential benefits. We live
in a country with a safe, affordable food supply, but it has come
at an environmental cost. We need to reduce that cost and I
believe the responsible use of biotechnology can be a part of
that answer.
Should foods developed using the new genetic technologies be
labeled? For food safety reasons, as a practicing scientist, I
would say no. The foods developed using the new tools are not
zero-risk, but they are not inherently more risky than foods
developed using classical genetics.
For consumer choice reasons, again I would say no TO LABELS. U.S.
consumers look to food labels to provide information on the composition and
attributes of the
food, not to the details of the agricultural or manufacturing
processes used to produce it.
Labeling a fresh fruit or vegetable would be fairly
simple, although it would provide the consumer little
information. With a processed food, like catsup, which might
contain six different varieties of tomatoes each with its own new
gene, labeling becomes complicated. As a scientist, I know what
would be required to monitor that catsup for those genes. I
personally can't support a system that would raise the price of
food significantly for everyone, when food safety is not the
issue. If there is sufficient interest in foods devoid of GMO's,
our free market system will provide such choices through the
emergence of a sector that delivers such foods, like the Kosher
market. In fact, organic foods are mandated to be GMO-free.
The bottom line is that the responsible use of biotechnology
can add important new tools to the farmer's toolbox that will
permit farming in a more environmentally friendly manner and
that will provide nutritional benefits to consumers worldwide.
Brian Hyps
Public Affairs Director
American Society of Plant Physiologists
15501 Monona Drive
Rockville, MD 20855
301-251-0560 (phone)
301-309-9196 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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