Is the Hidden Viral Gene Safe? GMO Regulators Fail to Convince

by Jonathan Latham, PhD and Allison Wilson, PhD

Having unwittingly allowed a viral gene into the food chain, the response of regulators so far has been to release statements intended to allay public concerns. These statements, however, are inadequate to meet a potentially major food crisis. Not only do they fail to address important issues but they are also scientifically questionable even within their chosen frame of reference.

The GMO regulators involved are the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). These two agencies have separately released statements (see complete texts EFSA and FSANZ) defending their risk assessments and conclusions in response to our recent article “Regulators Discover a Hidden Viral Gene in GMO crops“.

EFSA Head Office, Parma

This article, published by Independent Science News (ISN), addressed a recent scientific publication that showed GMO regulators have repeatedly approved crops carrying a transgenic viral sequence they did not realize also encoded part of a viral gene (Podevin and du Jardin 2012). The ‘hidden’ viral gene in question is called Gene VI and it resides within a DNA sequence called the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter. The CaMV 35S promoter is important for the reason that it is almost ubiquitously used in commercial GMOs. In the ISN article we further proposed that Gene VI of CaMV represents a potential threat to crop health and human health.

In this second article we now question the two statements being offered to the public and journalists by EFSA and FSANZ. The credibility and effectiveness of regulators rests on their actions being based on 1) scientific knowledge, 2) scientific integrity, and 3) the public interest. We assess the EFSA and FSANZ statements and find them to be both scientifically misleading and also inadequate to meet the public interest concerns raised by the discovery of Gene VI. This is due to their reliance on scientifically unverifiable assertions and logical fallacies. We also here draw attention to important scientific questions raised by the recognition of Gene VI within the CaMV promoter that regulators have yet to address.

Regulators Misrepresent the State of Scientific Knowledge

The following six quotes are extracted from the statements by EFSA and FSANZ

1) “Human exposure to DNA from the cauliflower mosaic virus and all its protein products through consumption of conventional foods is common and there is no evidence of any adverse health effects.” (FSANZ)

In order for this statement to be supported by scientific data there would have to exist controlled experiments feeding CaMV DNA, or its viral proteins, to experimental subjects (animal or human). In addition, there would also have to be epidemiological data linking CaMV consumption (which as FSANZ notes appears to be common enough for this to be done) with human health status. To our knowledge, experiments have not been done in either area, and we challenge FSANZ to provide scientific references for this statement. Without relevant experiments absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It is especially inappropriate given the high and sometimes increasing rates of diet-related chronic illness in countries consuming the most GMOs.

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