Posted by Jamie Forrest, December 10, 2007 at 1:15 PM
The current issue up for discusion in Business Week's Debate Room is GMO Crops: A Growing Concern (get it?). The debate about genetically modified food pits Gillian Madill and Ian Illuminato, of Friends of the Earth, against Jim Greenwood, of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. For me, though, the real debate here isn't about the pros and cons of genetically engineered food (at least not until long term studies on its effects have been completed), but about whether or not companies who use GM ingredients should be required to say so on their labels.
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Posted by Jamie Forrest, October 8, 2007 at 11:00 AM
In August of 2006, then Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns announced that the U.S. commercial rice supply had been tainted with an experimental, genetically modified variety unapproved for human consumption. The experimental rice supposedly posed no threat to human health, according to both the USDA and Bayer CropScience, the company that created it. However, the European Union subsequently banned imports of American rice, a move that drastically affected the domestic market. Now, 14 months later, in absence of any evidence one way or another as to how this contamination occurred, Bayer CropScience has been cleared from any governmental enforcement action, and the investigation has officially been closed.
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