Critics of genetically modified crops often assert that all research into the plants’ safety is bought and paid for by industry. Not so, according to a newly compiled database of biotech crop research. Independently funded, peer-reviewed research into GM crops “is common, conducted worldwide, and makes up half of the total research on risk associated with genetic engineering,” say the team behind the database.
The database was compiled by not-for-profit group Biology Fortified, which was set up in 2008 by plant geneticists Karl Haro von Mogel and Anastasia Bodnar, now both public sector scientists. As graduate students they both studied genetics and plant biology. They kept coming across each other in the comment sections of various GMO articles, pointing out inaccuracies and trying to explain common misconceptions.
Haro von Mogel says they began to think there must be a better way, and so they set up Biology Fortified.
One misconception that came up over and over was that little research exists about potential risks posed by biotech crops, and that what research exists is all industry funded. In reality, many studies funded by government or other independent sources have tackled the question, leading to the scientific consensus that GM foods are safe to eat and safe for the environment.
In a bid to dispel the myth, Biology Fortified board member David Tribe of the University of Melbourne collected more than 200 hundred safety-related studies on his website. Haro von Mogel and Bodnar gathered more than 100 independently funded studies to add to the list. It quickly became apparent, however, that a few hundred citations would not be sufficiently useful or persuasive – and so work on the large searchable database, known as GENERA (for Genetic Engineering Risk Atlas), began....
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