GMOs Part II: Reading Material

1. Here is a New York Times article from 2000 which gives a nice overview. A couple letters to the editor followed this article which accented a couple of points:

Superstition and fear should not interfere with this technology, which has so much to offer those who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Unfounded concerns about hypothetical risks are far outweighed by the real benefits that will soon be realized, if scientific research and development of genetically modified agriculture is allowed to proceed unhindered.
Link
The Personal Health column on genetically modified foods promotes the misconceptions it warns of. The portrayal of current genetic ''engineering'' as precise and well defined is inappropriate today.

Few genes are ''known quantities'' and the process of introducing a foreign gene into an organism produces uncertainty about both the gene's function and the function of the DNA into which it is inserted.

Genetic engineering techniques are abysmally primitive, akin to swapping random parts between random cars to produce a better car. Yet our ignorance will fade; biological engineering will become a reality relatively soon.
Link

2. Here is another New York Times article about the African Nation of Zambia rejecting genetically modified crops eventhough the country is close to famine.

3. Here are a couple of paragraphs from Greenpeace speaking in opposition to genetically modified crops.

4. Finally here is some advanced reading from the World Health Organization: 20 Questions on Genetically Modified Foods.