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As a member of an Australian parliamentary committee investigating the merits and disadvantages of GM crops I visited Washington and spoke to many officials including the then Biotechnology Coordinator of the FDA Jim Maryanski.

Mr Maryanski claimed that there were adequate buffers to prevent the intermingling of crops modified to produce pharmaceuticals like insulin or hormones used in hormone replacement therapies. However, at arriving back at my hotel I picked up the Washington Post and read that a load of grain modified to cause clotting of blood was accidentally delivered to silos containing grain for bread making. If that grain had got to consumers many Americans could have died agonising deaths.

Mr Maryanski also confirmed that studies on the safety of GE (genetically engineered) foods were carried out by the proponent not the FDA. What the FDA did to verify the safety of novel GM protein was to look at the shape of the new protein molecules to see if they were a "similar shape" to natural non toxic proteins. I pointed out to Mr Maryanski that potatoes, eggplant peppers and tomatoes are all from the family solanaceae closely related to deadly nightshade.

However the worst problem with the growing of many genetically modified crops is that it means that consumers will not be able to get non-GE foods because of contamination.
The pedigree seed growers told our committee that they could not provide non GE seed unless farmers accepted up to 9% contamination. In addition the onus is on the non-GE growers to prove the purity of their crops rather than being on the GE grower to prevent contamination of nearby farms. This pushes costs on the non GE growers making them less financially competitive. This is why many farmers have been forced to grow GE. Representatives of both US and Canadian farmers told the committee that they wished GE had never been introduced.