Re: GMO and health impact

On 17 Nov 2003 07:31:36 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (The Gus) wrote:

>Bob <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>> A crop is something grown and harvested commercially. In this case, we
>> are talking about plants being grown by farmers as crops. A food crop,
>> then, is a crop grown for use as a food -- such as rice or apples.
>> (Other plants might be grown for lumber or for flowers; these would
>> not be _food_ crops.)
>> 
>> So, how do you think food crops "should" be improved?
>> 
>> bob
>
>ok, thanks and scuse me for my poor english
>i think food crops shoul be modified to become vaccine. i think gmo
>who are modified to became resistant to insecticid (???? i don't know
>if it's that in english). this gmo encourage farmers to throw a lot of
>insecticid on their fields, and that is bad for nature. gmo must
>become medicine and i hope they will never completely replace natural
>crops

The idea of making vaccines in plants is indeed intersting; it is
being worked on. Here is one example, involving making a modified
clover plant for cows to eat. Since it is not for human consumption,
the regulatory issues are somewhat simpler, but I know that analogous
vaccines for humans are being talked about.

 Lee et al, in : Infection and Immunity. 2001 Sep;69(9):5786-93. 

You should be able to access this article, at 
www.journals.asm.org


Note that plants modified to make drugs (vaccine or other) are no
longer going to be considered food crops. We may eat them, but we eat
pills, too. That is, they will become "drug factories", and will be
regulated that way.

There has already been some problem with a plant modified to make a
drug being mixed up with a normal plant. This is a concern.


As to whether plants modified to be resistant to insecticides (or
herbicides) increase use of the insecticides (or herbicides)... That
is not simple. The intent is that they will need _less_ of the
insecticide. So far, experience is variable.


GMO plants are logically very much like gene therapy with humans. Are
you paying attention to the gene therapy trial going on in France for
X-SCID? This is the most promising trial so far, yet still has
problems. 


We had a conference on GMO near here (in Sacramento, the capital of
California) a few months ago. The news headlines were about the Bush
administration claiming that GMO was needed to solve the world's food
problems, and about the opponents claiming all the dangers. Perhaps
the truth is somewhere in between -- and will be worked out over
coming decades.

Remember, this whole field is only 10-20 years old. Would you want to
fly on an airplane from 1915? Or use a computer from 1960? So I think
we need to be patient and open-minded as we watch a new field develop.

regards,

bob


>@+
>The Gus