Corn flakes

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

[nyt]
September 8, 2001
Data on Genetically Modified Corn Reports Say Threat to Monarch
Butterflies Is 'Negligible'
By ANDREW POLLACK



Genetically modified corn poses a "negligible" risk to monarch
butterflies, according to a package of six papers that will soon be
published in a scientific journal.

The papers, the most comprehensive peer-reviewed publications on this
issue, could lay to rest one of the biggest controversies over
genetically modified crops.

"I don't think there's a need to consider monarchs at risk due to this
technology," said Mark K. Sears, a professor of environmental biology
at the University of Guelth in Ontario, a lead author on one of the
papers.

Drafts of the papers were released late yesterday by the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences and will be published next week,
ahead of an Oct. 1 release that had been planned.

The early release came because the Environmental Protection Agency is
scrambling to defuse criticism that it has been planning to renew the
permits for these genetically modified crops even though the data on
the butterfly impact had not yet been widely released to the public.
[snip]