GM Crops Face Heat Of Debate

For a successful technologyReality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. --Richard Feynman Nobel physicist Richard Feynman was talking about the role NASA and its industrial partners played in the 1986 Challenger disaster, but his words could easily apply to the debate over genetically modified (GM) crops. When grain processor Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) of Decatur, Ill., asked suppliers on Sept. 2 to segregate GM corn from traditional varieties, some U.S. b

Written byRicki Lewis

| 12 min read

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For a successful technology
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

Nobel physicist Richard Feynman was talking about the role NASA and its industrial partners played in the 1986 Challenger disaster, but his words could easily apply to the debate over genetically modified (GM) crops. When grain processor Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) of Decatur, Ill., asked suppliers on Sept. 2 to segregate GM corn from traditional varieties, some U.S. biotechnologists probably wondered if it was the beginning of the end for crops that already cover an area larger than the United Kingdom. ADM's move followed a European blockade of imported GM foods and a growing trickle of American companies banning GM ingredients from their products. Has the near panic in Europe over GM foods leaped the Atlantic? How can science be separated from hype to make sense of the actual risks in GM foods?

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