<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Debra Boutin-Grad Student wrote:
 
> An article in the Ithaca Journal, June 7th, states that Cornell scientists
> have successfully geneticially engineered a "super rice" using genes from
> potatoes and BARLEY!!!!!  The idea is that after getting genes from
> etc.
 
Hello, I would like o comment a bit here. Personally, I believe genetic
engineering is a good thing. If used APROPIATELY, it will bring lots of
benefits to mankind.
 
Talking about this rice...
 
We only need to remember that any living organism has thousands of genes
and, in the case of BARLEY, only one or more (a few) may transcribe the
gliadin-unfriendly protein.
 
I do not know what genes they used from BARLEY for the recombinant rice,
but, they probably used others rather than the GLIADIN-gene. Unless, of
course, gliadin happens to be a useful component of the living plant that
makes it resistant to whatever may be the case. In that case, those
scientists would have used some gliadin genes. (recombinant=genetically
engineered something, AKA "Chiral").
 
I should also say that when I mention gliadin, it is only for
specificity. I could have also said GLUTEN protein (remember that gliadin
is a subpeptide -component- of gluten). I have not read yet exactly how
many genes are required to transcribe the whole gluten protein set, but
it appears to be 2 (to me).
 
Well, I agree, as the new era of biotechnology arises, the defined
frontiers of our food will get blurred. That's for sure. At the same time
new recombinant wonders are created they HAVE to be properly clasiffied
and TESTED, in our case for gluten reactions. Any new recombinant food is
potentially an allergen. Not only for us, but for other types of
allergies too.
 
Please, let's not panic, but rather bring the laws UP TO DATE, with our
real life, let's have them label for GLUTEN presence. I'm really tired of
reading the labels all the time. Talking about this, I't ocurrs to me the
following hyphotetical case: "Mike" reads the label of can "X" and, in
the limits of his knowledge believes it is GF free. He eat's it. He gets
a terrible reaction (yes, that type). What if Mike SUES the company for
poor labeling? I'm thinking this might wake up the companies, and maybe
this could deliver a better service. Just a thought.
 
This list is full of great people and I think we might be able to do
something about the labeling problem.
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