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Summary: The paper draws attention to the fact that the GM
oil seed rape (OSR) varieties used in the Farm Scale Evaluations
(FSE) and currently seeking approval for cultivation in the
European Union (Bayer BioScience OSR Ms8xRf3) are 'terminator'
crops with in-built sterility. It points out how the National
Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) report, while estimating
cross-pollination to neighbouring conventional OSR to be in
excess of 0.5% at one FSE site, actually underestimates gene
flow. The paper also discusses the impacts to health and biodiversity.
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Background:
Dr Ho, B.Sc. Biol/Chem. (First Class), Ph. D. Biochemistry,
Hong Kong
University, is on the Roster of Experts for the Cartagena
Protocol on
Biosafety. She was Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurosciences, University
of
California at San Diego; Fellow of the National Genetics Foundation,
USA;
Senior Research Fellow in Biochemistry, University of London;
Lecturer in
Genetics then Reader in Biology at the Open University. She
is also visiting
Professor of Organic Physics in Catania University. Dr Ho
has close to 300
publications including 10 books spanning several disciplines,
among which
are The Rainbow and the Worm, the Physics of Organisms (1993,
1998),
Bioelectrodynamics and Biocommunication (1994); Bioenergetics
(1995);
Genetic Engineering Dream or Nightmare? (1998, 1999), Beyond
neo-Darwinism:
An Epigenetic Approach to Evolution (1984); Evolutionary Processes
and
Metaphors (1987).
Prof. Cummins is Professor Emeritus of Genetics, University
of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. He obtained a
BS degree in Horticulture, Washington State University 1955
and a PhD degree in Cellular Biology from University of Wisconsin
1962. His postdoctoral work was at Edinburgh, Palermo, Stockholm
(Karolinska) and the Macardle Laboratory for Cancer Research
University of Wisconsin. He taught genetics at Rutgers and
the University of Washington, Seattle before joining The University
of Western Ontario in 1972. Prof. Cummins has published over
200 scientific and popular articles, the most recent papers
appearing in Nature Biotechnology, The Ecologist, and Biotechnology
and Development Review.
Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1
0XR, UK.
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