WA minister cops flak from prestigious journal

International science journal Nature Biotechnology has taken the Western Australian agriculture minister Kim Chance to task for funding a supposedly independent study of the health effects of genetically modified food crops by an Adelaide research institute renowned for its anti-GM activism.

In an editorial, titled 'Genetically Modified Mush', reviewed CSIRO Plant Industry's decision to shut down a project to develop a GM field pea with inbuilt resistance to the pea weevil Bruchus pisorum, after feeding experiments in mice showed the transgenic protein, alpha-amylase inhibitor, caused a mild inflammatory reaction.

The journal said it was not clear whether the inflammatory reaction equated to an allergic reaction in mice, or whether it would have had the same effect in humans.

In addition to noting that the problem was detected before the GM pea was released, the editorial noted that the international Codex Alimentarius Commission would probably have rejected the weevil-resistant pea for human consumption because of peptide sequence similarities between the alpha amylase inhibitor to minor allergens in peanut and soybean.

"All of this would probably be a scientific side note if it weren't for the fact that a senior Western Australian official took it upon himself to use the pea study as a pretext to go on the offensive against GM food," the editorial said.

"No sooner had CSIRO released its results than minister of agriculture Kim Chance announced the setting up of an 'independent study' to review the possibility that 'when a gene is taken out of one organism and put into another, the protein expressed in that gene may be different'."

Chance's ministerial press did not name the recipient research agency, but according to the editorial, the The West Australian newspaper reported a few days later that the funds had been awarded to the Institute for Health and Environmental Research in Adelaide.

"This institute consists of three people with no scientific expertise in long-term feeding studies and a clear agenda against anything remotely connected to a transgene. So much for an independent study," the journal said.

It said Chance was entitled to his opinion, but the day must come when he and politicians like him would realise that absolute proof for the safety of GM crops was a scientific impossibility. "We have in place a reliable assessment process to flag potentially allergenic recombinant proteins on a case-by-case basis. And with so many other priorities competing for taxpayer money, one must question whether the best interests of the Western Australian public have really been served."