Millions of GMO Mosquitoes Released Without Risk Assessment or Oversight

Millions of GMO Mosquitoes Released Without Risk Assessment or Oversight


rBarbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Look out people of planet earth, genetically engineered bugs are
here. Just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, our technocracy is
working ever diligently on genetically engineering every last living
cell on the planet – WITHOUT EXCEPTION. What does this mean for life
here on earth? Ever hear the expression “soup sandwich?” Well, after
these “scientific” geniuses are through with us, that is exactly what
all life will be – a genetic soup sandwich, made in a lab, and stamped
with a corporate logo embedded in our DNA.

If the following report from Testbiotech doesn’t send chills up your
spine, I don’t know what will. Get ready world, because nothing will
ever be the same. Ever. There is no remediation technique available to
clean up genetically engineered mutations released into the wild and
spread through horizontal gene transfer. Barb

<blockquote>Regulatory decisions on releasing genetically modified (GM) insects biased by corporate interests

Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch UK said “The public will
be shocked to learn that GM insects can be released into the environment
without any proper oversight. Conflicts-of-interest should be removed
from all decision-making processes to ensure the public have a proper
say about these plans.”

London/ Munich Thursday 8^th November 2012 A
briefing published today by public interest groups highlights how
regulatory decisions on GM insects in Europe and around the world are
being biased by corporate interests.

The briefing shows how UK biotech company Oxitec has infiltrated
decision-making processes around the world. The company has close links
to the multinational pesticide and seed company, Syngenta. Oxitec has
already made large-scale open releases of GM mosquitoes in the Cayman
Islands, Malaysia and Brazil and is developing GM agricultural pests,
jointly with Syngenta. Plans to commercialise GM insects would result in
many millions of GM insects being released in fields of crops,
including olives, tomatoes, citrus fruits, cabbages and cotton. In
future, any insect species might be genetically modified.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is highlighted as one of
several examples showing how industry organises its influence. In EFSA´s
GM insects working group, which was established to develop guidance for
risk assessment of genetically engineered insects, there are several
cases of conflicts of interest, including experts with links to Oxitec
who only partially declared their interests. The draft Guidance on risk
assessment of GM insects shows some significant deficiencies: for
example it does not consider the impacts of GM insects on the food
chain. Oxitec’s GM insects are genetically engineered to die mostly at
the larval stage so dead GM larvae will enter the food chain inside food
crops such as olives, cabbages and tomatoes. Living GM insects could
also be transported on crops to other farms or different countries. EFSA
has excluded any consideration of these important issues from its draft
guidance. Many other issues are not properly addressed.

The briefing also highlights problems with a World Health
Organisation (WHO)-funded project which has allowed the company to
bypass requirements for informed consent for the release of GM
mosquitoes. The WHO-funded Mosqguide project, which was supposed to be
developing best practice, also allowed the company to gain approval from
Brazilian regulators to release 16 million GM mosquitoes before draft
regulations on the release of GM insects had been finalised or adopted,
without publishing a risk assessment.

Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch UK said “The public will
be shocked to learn that GM insects can be released into the environment
without any proper oversight. Conflicts-of-interest should be removed
from all decision-making processes to ensure the public have a proper
say about these plans.”

Christoph Then, Executive Director, Testbiotech, said: “Risk
assessment of genetically engineered animals touches many areas where
there is lack of knowledge. We are concerned that EFSA will apply a
biased and selective protocol to safety without really sorting out
potential hazards.”

François Meienberg, Berne Declaration, said: “Companies such as
Syngenta and Oxitec have to learn that negative impacts on the
environment or health can arise from their lobbying activities. To act
responsibly they have to change their lobbying behaviour immediately.”

Nina Holland, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), said: “Experts
on EFSA’s working groups should not be allowed to have any conflict of
interests with industry, let alone ties with companies producing the
very product they are assessing – in this case GM insects. This clearly
shows that EFSA’s rules to deal with conflicts of interest still have
major gaps.”

Tina Goethe, SwissAid, said: “The development of GM-insects for
agriculture implies unforeseeable risks for human health and
environment. In order to meet the challenges of small scale agriculture
in poor countries, we do not need expensive and high risk technologies,
but agro-ecological solutions.”

The briefing highlights multiple attempts by Oxitec to influence regulation around the world, which have included:

• Attempts to define ‘biological containment’ of the insects (which
  are programmed to die at the larval stage) as contained use, by-passing
  requirements for risk assessments and consultation on decisions to
  release GM insects into the environment;
  
• Attempts to avoid any regulation of GM agricultural pests on crops which will end up in the food chain;
  
• Avoidance of any discussion of how GM insects can be contained at a site, or products produced using GM insects can be labelled;
  
• Exclusion of many important issues from risk assessments, including
  impacts of surviving GM mosquitoes on the environment and health, and
  impacts of changing mosquito populations on human immunity and disease;
  
• Failure to follow transboundary notification processes for exports of GM insects correctly;
  
• Undermining the requirement to obtain informed consent for experiments involving insect species which transmit disease;
  
• Attempts to avoid liability for any harm if anything goes wrong;
  
• Pushing ahead with large-scale open releases of GM mosquitoes before relevant guidance or regulations are adopted.
  

For further information contact:

Helen Wallace, GeneWatch UK, Tel +44 (0)1298-24300 (office); +44 (0)7903-311584 (mobile), helen.wallace@genewatch.org

Christoph Then, Testbiotech, Tel + 49151 54638040, info@testbiotech.org

François Meienberg, Berne Declaration, Ph: +41 44 277 70 04, Email: food@evb.ch

Nina Holland, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Tel: +32 2 8930930, Mobile: +31 (0) 6 302 85 042, nina@corporateeurope.org

Tina Goethe, SwissAid, Tel.: +41-(0)31-350 53 75, t.goethe@swissaid.ch
</blockquote>

Read the full report here:


Genetically modified insects: under whose control? GeneWatch UK,
Testbiotech, SwissAid, Berne Declaration, Corporate Europe Observatory
briefing. October 2012. http://www.testbiotech.de/node/729



Source:-
http://farmwars.info/?p=9457