There was an excellent PBS Frontline special on GM crops. It was
balanced and came to some conclusions that surprised me but were
consistent with what I learned from a discussion of GM foods from a
reporter who has covered food for thirty years.

The antibiotic resistant gene was used as a marker to determine if the
desired gene made it into the target crop or was spread to others. It
was describe as a common scientific method, but has been discontinued in
GM crops. There is quite a bit about it on the web but mostly in the
"what if" as opposed to that any antibiotic resistance has been
transferred. It has generally been described as a "lazy" method of
tagging and other less controversial methods are available and now used.
The possibility of transference to an animal or insect has been
described as improbable but not impossible by most. However, gene
transference from plant to plant has occurred.

It is interesting that the Frontline special came down solidly on the
fact that GM crops are not essential in the developed countries if you
are willing to tolerate continued pesticide use. But GM crops in
developing countries were essential to bring them above subsistence
farming, malnutrition and possible starvation.

I was also surprised to learn how widespread GM crops are in the US and
that we have been eating GM corn for years.

The conclusion of the program was more "wait and see" than coming down
on one side or the other, but the slant was definitely toward GM.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, ME