David Hare-Scott > writes
>
>"Jim Webster" > wrote in message

>> But in making that statement you have agreed with the author. GM plants
>are
>> far more subject to scrutiny than conventional varieties which receive
>damn
>> all.
>
>Yes but it seems quite reasonable to me that it is so.

Indeed, but then don't simultaneously complain its all untested.

>Many conventional varieties we have been eating for generations would
>> never have recieved clearance had modern regulators been able to check and
>> ban them when they first appeared
>
>This is very hard to get a handle on as I cannot see any attempt to quantify
>the problems with 'conventional' crops. Yes some cases of toxins being
>created/augmented are reported but how significant is that in the overall
>scheme of things? If it is only a rare siuation why would you want to
>impose regulation on it.

One needs to be careful here. The argument in pesticides testing is that
nobody should ever be able to receive 1/10th to 1/100th (depending on
the perceived political hazard) of the NoEffectLevel. This leads to all
sorts of anomalies where levels are set assuming a vegetarian will eat
their entire food requirements in (say) carrots containing the legal
minimum which then sets the allowed concentration so its 1/10th of the
NoEL even though if you did this you would die of carotene poisoning.
Furthermore no trace of carcinogenicity is permitted.

Pharmaceuticals have a similar, but much more lax test.

The argument is that these very low levels are needed to ensure nobody
ever gets injured by the pesticide. The problem is that if you applied
the same test to known plant toxins, then you would have to ban the
plant because it contains more than the allowed level (or contains
carcinogens).

Something containing known carcinogens, like say toast, wouldn't even
get to first stage screening as a pesticide, it contains carcinogens so
its out.

What is needed is a proper toxicology of food items so we can properly
evaluate the risks of our foods. Then, somewhat perversely, we could
breed out the most dangerous (but probably most effective) toxins and
cover the pest control using tested safe pesticides.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.

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