We are getting slightly off-topic from bees but in deference to the "informed" part of our mandate:  Re: an allegedly toxic GM celery
 
I have been able to find nothing in the BEE-L archives about this topic.  More importantly, I have found no scholarly references to any such toxic GM celery.  What I did find were citations about NON-GM cultivars of celery (that is, conventionally bred) which "accumulate relatively high amounts of psoralens to deter insect predators that damage the plant."  Psoralens naturally occur in all celeries.  The natural incidence of psoralens goes up by a factor of about 100 when the celery plant is diseased or bruised.  Psoralens some cultivars have been bred to be higher than average.  Psoralens cause some farm workers who harvest celery to develop photodermatitis - a skin rash in response to light.  This reaction has been observed as far back as 1961.  (The first GMOs were not created until 1973.)  See "Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods: Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects", Box 3-2 (2004) for more on the celery story and for
 the multiple citations supporting their summary.
 
The "without a single verified complaint" challenge remains open.

Mike Rossander

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