Organic News Issue 2

The third author of the report, Claire Robinson, research
director of Earth Open Source, said, “The GM industry is
trying to change our food supply in far-reaching and potentially
dangerous ways. We all need to inform ourselves about what is
going on and ensure that we – not biotechnology companies –
keep control of our food system and crop seeds.
“We hope our report will contribute to a broader understanding
of GM crops and the sustainable alternatives that are already
working successfully for farmers and communities.”
Claire Robinson
About the authors
Michael Antoniou, PhD is reader in molecular
genetics and head, Gene Expression and Therapy Group,
King’s College London School of Medicine, London, UK.
He has 28 years’ experience in the use of genetic engineering
technology investigating gene organisation and control, with
over 40 peer reviewed publications of original work, and holds
inventor status on a number of gene expression biotechnology
patents. Dr Antoniou has a large network of collaborators in
industry and academia who are making use of his discoveries
in gene control mechanisms for the production of research,
diagnostic and therapeutic products and human somatic
gene therapies for inherited and acquired genetic disorders.
John Fagan, PhD is a leading authority on
sustainability in the food system, biosafety, and GMO
testing. He is founder and chief scientific officer of a
GMO testing and certification company. He is a director
of Earth Open Source. Earlier, he conducted cancer
research at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)
and in academia. He holds a PhD in biochemistry and
molecular and cell biology from Cornell University.
Dr Fagan became an early voice in the scientific
debate on genetic engineering when in 1994 he took an
ethical stand challenging the use of germline gene therapy
(which has subsequently been banned in most countries)
and genetic engineering in agriculture. He underlined his
concerns by returning a grant of around $614,000 to the US
National Institutes of Health, awarded for cancer research
that used genetic engineering as a research tool. He was
concerned that knowledge generated in his research could
potentially be misused to advance human germline genetic
engineering (for example, to create “designer babies”),
which he found unacceptable on grounds of both safety
and ethics. For similar reasons, around the same time, he
withdrew applications for two additional grants totalling
$1.25 million from the NIH and the National Institute
of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). In 1996 he
founded one of the pioneering GMO testing and certification
companies after realising that this could be useful to assist
industry in providing consumers with the transparency
that they desired regarding the presence of GMOs in foods.
Claire Robinson, MPhil is research director at Earth
Open Source. She has a background in investigative reporting
and the communication of topics relating to public health,
science and policy, and the environment. She is an editor
at GMWatch (www.gmwatch.org), a public information
service on issues relating to genetic modification, and was
formerly managing editor at SpinProfiles (now Powerbase).
N
O
T
E
S
The report, “GMO Myths and Truths, An evidence-based
examination of the claims made for the safety and efficacy of
genetically modified crops”, by Michael Antoniou, PhD, Claire
Robinson, and John Fagan, PhD is published by Earth Open Source
(June 2012). The report is 123 pages long and contains over 600
citations, many of them from the peer-reviewed scientific literature
and the rest from reports by scientists, physicians, government
bodies, industry, and the media.
FULL REPORT (123 pages) you can find here.
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