Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #newGMO
Most recents (9)
Heard the one about how we must deregulate #GMOs so the world's biggest pesticide corporations can use them to cut pesticide use?
#GMO crops are helping drive pesticide use, especially herbicide use, not reducing it. And new GMOs are set to do exactly the same.
#GMO crops are helping drive pesticide use, especially herbicide use, not reducing it. And new GMOs are set to do exactly the same.
1st-generation #GMO crops were introduced over 20 years ago with the same promises of pesticide reductions now being made for #newGMO crops. Due to the adoption of GMO herbicide-tolerant crops in the US herbicide use from 1996-2011 INCREASED by an estimated 239M kg—239000 tonnes!
In Argentina🇦🇷after #GMO herbicide-tolerant soy was authorised in 1996, they saw a 60% increase in herbicide use (figures 2000-2014) with accompanying reports of increased rates of cancers and birth defects friendsoftheearth.eu/wp-content/upl… #GMOs 
The genetic mistakes that could shape our species bbc.com/future/article… Gene editing’s past is riddled with errors and misunderstandings. #NewGMO via @BBC_Future
@BBC_Future ...From the rabbits altered to be leaner that inexplicably ended up with much longer tongues to the cattle tweaked to lack horns that were inadvertently endowed with a long stretch of bacterial DNA in their genomes (including some genes that confer antibiotic resistance, no less)
@BBC_Future Editing errors are common: Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London recently analysed data from previous gene editing experiments and found that approximately 16% had accidental mutations that would not have been picked up via standard tests gmwatch.org/en/news/latest…
The future of agricultural gene editing: More herbicide-tolerant crops sooner gmwatch.org/en/news/latest… Scientists look forward to crops that can be sprayed with multiple herbicides and evade risk assessment! #NewGMO
1st generation GMO crops were supposed to cut pesticide use. They didn't. In fact 87% of current GMO crops are engineered for herbicide tolerance. Now GMO promoters claim gene editing will save us from pesticide use. But a new paper spells out why it'll be *even more* of the same
If govts deregulate gene edited crops, then they can be developed faster & more profitably, and be easily hidden from consumers. This will help more *multi*-herbicide tolerant crops hit the market "years earlier", scientists say in a new paper. And they think that's a good thing!
A key reason gene editing shouldn't be deregulated is all the hype about its precision & accuracy is BS. Even Harvard's George Church calls #CRISPR "a blunt axe". He says, "it's called editing, I think it's really genome vandalism." Yet the Govt thinks it needs no safety checks!
More & more studies in human, animal & plant cells show gene editing gives rise to numerous genetic errors (aka unintended mutations—DNA damage) at both off-target sites & on-target (at the desired editing site). These include large deletions, insertions & rearrangements of DNA.
A commentary in the journal Nature noted that a suite of studies had found #CRISPR gene-editing in human embryos "wreaks chromosomal mayhem". This included large, unwanted changes to the genome that the journal said could be missed in many experiments nature.com/articles/d4158… #gmo
UK Govt did not support amendment 275 to deregulate gene editing & public opinion was mentioned a lot in debate. Thanks for helping stop the worst possible outcome happening. #NewGMO
But it’s not over as a different version of the amendment could come back. And minister announced public consultation launching in the autumn. #NewGMO
We (together with Beyond GM, GM Freeze) will be pressing for the consultation to be a meaningful in-depth consideration of public opinion and up to date science. #NewGMO
Excellent interview with the researcher Angelika Hilbeck, about the empty promises of #NewGMO. “Despite being promised for decades, still there isn’t a single drought-resistant (#GMO) variety on the market”
Gene-editing will deliver drought-tolerant plants, they say, but such plants have been promised for decades via GM. And to date, there is not a single variety on the market for which there is independently confirmed evidence that it really works better than conventional varieties
Gene-editing kicked off in 2012 with CRISPR-Cas. 8 years later: where are all these new crops? They like to compare themselves to the IT industry and talk of "editing", "code", etc. But if the IT industry produced so little in 8 years, it would be a pretty unsuccessful industry!
#CRISPR gene-editing in human embryos "wreaks chromosomal mayhem" – @nature journal gmwatch.org/en/news/latest… Lessons must be learned for plant, animal gene-editing. #NewGMO #gmo
"In the medical research community, it is not disputed that gene-editing techniques are GM techniques that give rise to GMOs and that these procedures and their products carry risks that require strict regulation. Only in the field of agbiotech is de-regulation demanded." #NewGMO
Studies showing risks from #GMO foods and associated #pesticides are attacked by lobbyists & their allies in the scientific community. But much of that community is now dependent on industry funding and/or influenced by personal financial interests in agricultural biotechnology.
This situation has led the environmental anthropologist @glenndavisstone to lament that the scientific community has largely lost the “honest brokers” who should inform public policy about the risks of gene-editing technologies onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111… #NewGMO
"Gene-editing technologies are new, and scientists are still trying to refine them and understand their effects. Worryingly, an increasing number of scientific studies show that gene editing is not precise and produces unintended DNA mutations..." gmwatch.org/en/news/latest… #NewGMO
With food plants: "the effects of unintended on-site and off-target mutations brought about by gene-editing tools, especially #CRISPR, will result in an altered pattern in gene function. This could result in a changed biochemistry leading to unexpected toxicity or allergenicity."
