Who's afraid of frankenfood?

• Position: From Readers - Letter to the Editor

As a scientist I am quite dismayed by the article on genetically modified rice ["Silent Winter?" May/June]. The article presumes that GMO grains will be harmful to migratory birds and that GMO-produced breast milk proteins will be risky to consumers. As far as I know, there is no evidence to support either of these implicit claims.

Personally, I see nothing upsetting about Ventria Bioscience's plans.

The author, Claire Cummings, asks, "Why would anyone take proteins that are already available in their natural form and genetically engineer them to create new recombinant forms of these same proteins?" In fact, there are many reasons why a company might do this. For example, the genetically engineered form might be a drug constituent and might be far cheaper or less environmentally damaging to harvest than the natural form. The author does not consider these possibilities but instead concludes that "this is the only way a company can patent and own these valuable substances." While this claim is true, it neglects the other possible benefits of bioengineering, only a couple of which are mentioned above.

May/June 2004 is the first issue of World Watch I've received as a new subscriber. While other articles in the...