Our new position on genetic engineering

And indefinite and unconditional ban is necessary on GE foods and on the release of GE organisms

Explanation

Our standpoint is the logical and inevitable conclusion from the recent consensus about the nature of genes which says that genes are not carriers of single traits. The action of each single gene is determined by its total environment. Therefore, when one introduces a gene to a foreign environment (a foreign species), its effects are unpredictable. The consequnece of this is inevitably that genetic engineering is, and will always be, inherently unsafe and unpredictable. For more, see our article about the recently published conclusions regarding genome research, "Consensus among leading experts - genes are not carriers of isolated traits".

Moreover, molecular biology has since long predicted that the insertion of foreign genes may cause the emergence of unexpected and harmful substances, and experimental studies have confirmed this prediciton.

Genome research has confirmed that the knowledge about genes is still very incomplete, as we have pointed out several years ago, see "Does science have enough knowledge about DNA to be able to predict and master the effects of genetic engineering?". Because of this, it is impossible to predict any effect of genetic engineering, including the environmental effects of releasing genetically engineered organisms into nature.

For these reasons it is irresponsible to release GE organisms into nature as well as to produce food out of them.

We have long been convinced about the unpredictability and dangernousness of genetic engineering and published articles about it several years ago, see the article "Incomplete knowledge about DNA". But as we have considered it indispensable to gain the support of as many scientists as possible, we have waited with taking such a drastic position as to require an indefinite ban on GE foods until there is so strong evidence that no serious scientist can object.

Therefore, until now, our position has been to demand a "moratorium on genetically engineered food until it has been proven to be safe". As we have been convinced that this will never be proven, this position has, in practice, amounted to the request for an indefinite ban.

Now however, as a world-wide consensus has been reached among leading experts that genes don't work in isolation and therefore that gene transfer inevitably has unpredictable and therefore potentially hazardous consequences, we find it justified to point out the logical consequence for genetic engineering of this understanding, which is that the use of GE foods and the commercial release and use of genetically engineered organisms outside strictly contained laboratory conditions must be banned indefinitely.

Otherwise it is probably a matter of time only before a serious damage occurs from eating GE foods or from releasing GE organisms into nature. The tragical Showa Denko Tryptophan disaster, which was most probably caused by genetic engineering, indicates that the consequences may be disastrous in the worst case.

Likewise it is probably a matter of time before unexpected effects of environmentlal realease of GE genes are discovered. In any case it is irresponsible to release artificially altered genes with unpredictable effects into the environment because they cannot be retrieved and will spread uncontrollably. Already a significant genetic pollution has occurred.

As the genes are the very code of life, genetic engineering, because of its unpredictable nature, means blind experimentation with the very basis of life on Earth. This must be banned before irreparable damage occurs. It is already late.

Complementary reading

• GE food supplement caused a disaster. 37 persons were killed and 1.500 people were permanently disabled by an unexpected powerful poison in a food supplement produced by genetically engineered bacteria. See: "The Showa Denko Tryptophan disaster".
• Cows ate genetically engineered (GE) maize and died.   The same kind of poison-producing gene is found in GE maize intended for human food. More
• The new understanding of genes
. The "one-gene-one-trait" dogma of Genetic Engineering has been proven to be fundamentally false. Therefore Genetic Engineering is a pseudotechnology without any scientific basis.
• Incomplete knowledge about DNA. In short, scientific knowledge about DNA is rudimentary, fragmented with almost no understanding of the quantum biophysical aspects of genes, which seem to be of fundamental importance. Therefore, commerical exploitation of genetic engineering including the release of genes into the environment, is blind experimentation with human health and the environment.
• "Is there sufficient knowledge about environmental effects to justify release of GE organisms?" [ML] In short, no research has been made about the effects on the environment as a whole. The knowledge about DNA is far too incomplete to enable science to exclude that the abnormality introduced into DNA through gene transfer may make such genes harmful to the environment in ways that cannot be imagined presently.