How many generation of insects can be done in one season? Ah phew ... we are saved they are sterile GMOs ...
The organization GeneWatch UK rejects the new draft European regulation for the authorization of genetically modified insects, fish, farm animals and domestic animals. [1]
The British firm Oxitec has already been talked about with its trials of transgenic mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands and in Malaysia and recently with large-scale releases in Brazil [2], with the support of the authorities of this country. This same firm works on genetically modified butterflies and flies. If this new draft European regulation is approved, billions of caterpillars and eggs of genetically modified butterflies and insects could be found in fruits and vegetables.
The insects have been genetically modified so that their caterpillars die inside olives or tomatoes or on the leaves of cabbage. [3] The Oxitec company plans to release its genetically modified pests all over the European Union so that they mate with their wild congeners in order to reduce their number. In order to have an effect on wild populations, new releases of GM insects must be carried out every week.
The threat is very serious. After the massive releases of GM mosquitoes in Brazil in conditions that can only cause concern, Oxitec could soon be active in Spain.
One of the main pests for olive trees is the olive fly (bactrocera olea). Each year oil producers try to reduce the presence of this pest by aerial spraying and ground control measures such as pheromones.
Oxitec has already developed flies from the male olive tree which are genetically modified so that their descendants die.
(...)
The points that worry GeneWatch are:
EFSA says dietary risks from insects in food were addressed in a previous consultation, which actually rejected them
EFSA does not explain how to prevent GM insect or fish eggs from ending up in the wrong place and damaging the environment
EFSA has tried to change its field of action and include the so-called “benefits” (reduction in the use of pesticides): this is not part of EFSA's role in European regulations.
The natural environment will adapt to releases of GM insects with complex responses that have been ignored, while reduction of one pest by the Oxitec method can make problems with another pest even worse.
the impacts of GM insects on diseases affecting humans and animals are very poorly understood and have not been properly taken into account.
EFSA has ignored (i) the risks of releasing more than one type of GM insect in the same area (ii) Oxitec's plans to combine GM pests with GM plants as a method for try to slow the progression of pest resistance to GM insecticide plants (Bt plants)
the release of GM fish could have serious consequences for wild fish and the environment.
we continue to ignore the fact that GM farm animals spontaneously lose their young or give birth to deformed or dead animals. The marketing of GL animals comes before animal welfare.
Dr. Helen Wallace
Source: http://www.amisdelaterre.org/Des-millia ... ifies.html
References:
1] GeneWatch's response to the EFSA consultation on the environmental risk assessment of GM animals August 2012.: http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d ... sponse.pdf
[2] See our article: Transgenic mosquitoes against "dengue"
http://amisdelaterre40.fr/spip/spip.php?article209
[3] See for example, the latest Oxitec scientific document "Control of the olive fruit fly using genetics-enhanced sterile insect technique" ( http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/10/51/ ) We can read that the majority of young females of their GM olive flies die in the pupa stage. This normally happens before the adult flies come out of the olive in which the flies have laid their eggs. In its document, Oxitec suggests that this “accidental presence” be considered in the European legal framework. This means that the presence in food of any dead, dying or surviving insect would be considered accidental and would not require regulation, traceability, or labeling for olives or other foods. The majority of the offspring of GM Oxitec insects die in the later stages of the larva (i.e., caterpillar) or in the pupa stage, but some individuals reach the adult stage. Currently, Oxitec is genetically modifying GM tomato leafminers, cabbage moths (which eat cabbage and broccoli) and vinegar flies.
[4] Open letter to the European Commission: http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d ... r_EFSA.pdf
