LeadForward Vol.1 No. 1

“We must also bear in mind that the GM transformation process (plant tissue culture and plant cells transformation) will inevitably give rise to hundreds if not thousands of sites of unintended DNA damage (mutations). These wide scale mutations can change patterns of gene function and alter biochemistry and composition, with unknown downstream health consequences.”

2. Assessment of new peptides of equal or greater than 30 amino acids at the insertion site of the foreign DNA was conducted to rule out toxicity or allergenicity concerns. The company identified one “putative” peptide; however, it stated that “this peptide has no homology to any known allergen or protein and there was no evidence this sequence is transcribed in tomato.” It concluded that the results “do not raise food safety concerns.” Allergenicity is an ongoing concern regarding the genetic modification of food. For example , a study published in Nature in 1999 reported that bean plants were genetically modified to produce higher levels of methionine and cysteine but were discarded because the expressed protein of the transgene was highly allergenic. While Norfolk Plant Sciences did not identify a match with any known allergens, that does not guarantee that the peptide formed through the process of gene modification is not an allergen. Given that nearly 11 percent of adult s and 5.6 million children in the United States have food allergies, it may be prudent to apply the precautionary principle when modifying our food’s genetic makeup. The Test That Everyone Talked About Although not included in the 2023 FDA memo, Norfolk Plant Sciences, in conjunction with Ms. Martin, published a pilot f eeding study in 2008 in Nature Biotechnology that examined the effects of purple tomato supplementation on the life span of cancer-susceptible mice. According to the study, mice fed the GM tomato lived longer—by an average of 40 days—than those fed non-GM red tomatoes. Publication of the pilot study prompted the John Innes Centre to publish a statement titled “Purple tomatoes may keep cancer at bay.” (Norfolk Plant Sciences is a spinoff company from the John Innes Centre.)

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