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SW: →Unknown Effects: adding info
In many areas of the U.S. citizens groups have been attempting to restrict GM crops through ballot measures. In response to these efforts, Monsanto is, in a move seen as blatantly undemocratic, yet which also demonstrates their political muscle, pushing and winning legislation - sometimes as edicts straight from the Governor's office - specifically designed to prohibit local citizens from making any decisions that would limit the scope of its biotech crops and/or to repeal those locally created ordinances already in place. For updates see [http://www.environmentalcommons.org/gmo-tracker.html].
==Unknown and Unintended Effects==
Interesting recent research verifying earlier work suggesting that the simplistic notion that "one gene = one function", the basis of much of genetic engineering, is actually a myth is escalating the debate. "Evidence of a ''networked genome'' shatters the scientific basis for virtually every official risk assessment of today’s commercial biotech products, from genetically engineered crops to pharmaceuticals. 'The real worry for us has always been that the commercial agenda for biotech may be premature, based on what we have long known was an incomplete understanding of genetics,' said Professor Heinemann, who writes and teaches extensively on biosafety issues" [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/business/yourmoney/01frame.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=9c5e011065886d0b&ex=1183953600&emc=eta1] (emphasis mine). See also the book [http://www.i-sis.org.uk/fluidGenome.php Living with the Fluid Genome].
"Putting the matter plainly", says Craig Holdrege of The Nature Institute, "when foreign genes are introduced into an organism, creating a transgenic organism ... the results for the organism and its environment are almost always unpredictable. The intended result may or may not be achieved in any given case, but the one almost sure thing is that unintended results - nontarget effects - will also be achieved" [http://natureinstitute.org/nontarget/index.php]. These accidental genetic changes are grouped by TNI into categories which include the physiological, morphological and "scrambled" genetic changes of the organisms affected, environmental effects and those affecting feed quality and can be found here [http://natureinstitute.org/nontarget/report_class.php Nontarget Effects of Genetic Manipulation]. An overview and discussion can be found [http://natureinstitute.org/nontarget/reports/Examples.php here]. The authors caution that "our compilation of reports is by no means exhaustive and will be expanded over time. The technical literature we have not yet touched remains extensive".
An example of our slowly evolving understanding of the complexities of genetics is in the new field of "epigenetics", which says that, contrary to normal understanding, their may be some inheritance of aquired characteristics [http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/ghostgenes.shtml]. What effects this may have on transgenic crops is now being questioned [http://www.oeko.de/oekodoc/277/2006-002-en.pdf]. See also [http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Four-Dimensions-Epigenetic-Philosophical/dp/0262600692 Evolution in Four Dimensions].
