Independent peer-reviewed research on Gene Modified Organisms or
GMOs is common.
This is the conclusion of a
study conducted worldwide on half of all research on risks associated with
genetic engineering.
Conducted by the GENetic
Engineering Risk Atlas (GENERA), the study belies the claims that there is
little independent research on the safety of gene-modified crops and organisms
for consumption or the environment.
GENERA is a searchable
database of peer-reviewed research on the relative risks of genetically
engineered crops that includes important details at-a-glance. This database is intended
to be comprehensive, to include all of the relevant research, and to accurately
report the outcomes of each study as reported by the authors.
To increase transparency, the
funding sources of each study are listed, which requires contacting the authors
of any paper that does not report this information. By including and reporting
important details about all of the relevant peer-reviewed scientific studies—not
just those that fit a pre-determined conclusion—GENERA will allow members of
the public to easily compare large amounts of research to form their own
conclusions about the relative risks of genetic engineering.
The database, which went
public on August 25, is now on beta testing with the first 400 out of over
1,200 studies that have been curated.
It is a project of Biology
Fortified, Inc., an independent tax-exempt non-profit whose mission is “to
strengthen the public discussion of issues in biology, with particular emphasis
on genetics and genetic engineering in agriculture.”
Founded in 2008 as a
scientist run information resource and public forum, Biology Fortified does not
accept funding from industry sources, and is instead funded by the
contributions of readers and grants.
“People are looking for
sources that they can trust that can help them find unbiased information about
genetic engineering, but in a politically-charged debate, unbiased sources are
difficult to find,” says Dr. Karl Haro von Mogel, Chair and co-Director of Biology Fortified.
Journalists, scientists,
public officials and anyone can use GENERA to search for research on the
effectiveness of using genetic engineering to modify the genetics of plants.
They can find studies that compare GMOs to non-GMOs to see if they are equivalent.
Studies conducted on the safety of consuming genetically engineered foods and
their impacts on the environment are also included in the Atlas.
GENERA offers users a unique
opportunity to look at the results of hundreds of studies at once with a
built-in chart feature. After doing a search, users can turn that search into a
chart of the selected studies to look at their results, funding sources or
almost any other attribute they want.
Out of the first 400
randomly-selected studies available in the GENERA beta test, half of them are
funded entirely by government agencies and independent nonprofit organizations.
Before the project began, rough estimates placed them at just a third of the
research.
The government-funded
research is worldwide in scope-concentrated in Europe and Asia, followed by
North America and Australia. According to GENERA, “these findings should turn
the heads of people who thought it was skewed to private, U.S.-based
laboratories.”
“Not all of our results are
surprising,” says Dr. Anastasia Bodnar, co-Director of Biology Fortified.
“Systematic reviews have concluded that genetically engineered crops are safe
to eat, and when you look at the results collected in GENERA, it agrees with
that conclusion.” (SciencePhilippines)
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