The exhaustive study cited in yesterday’s New York Times article deals a potentially crushing blow to the biotech industry – including the purveyors of genetic engineering in agriculture – one that “calls into question the scientific principles on which it was founded.”
Last month, a consortium of scientists published findings that challenge the traditional view of how genes function. The exhaustive four-year effort was organized by the United States National Human Genome Research Institute and carried out by 35 groups from 80 organizations around the world. To their surprise, researchers found that the human genome might not be a “tidy collection of independent genes” after all, with each sequence of DNA linked to a single function, such as a predisposition to diabetes or heart disease.
Instead, genes appear to operate in a complex network, and interact and overlap with one another and with other components in ways not yet fully understood.
You will also want to get your hands on Genetic Roulette by Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception. The book is comprehensive and scientifically authoritative (with each chapter reviewed by at least three renowned scientists). The subtitle sums up the book – The documented health risks of genetically engineered food.
GE (or GMO) foods are easy to avoid. Just avoid processed food. Buy organic and buy foods grown locally by farmers you know!