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[SANET-MG] Initial statement by Ignacio Chapela and David Quist om mexico corn



http://www.pulseofscience.org/pnasstatement
Response to PNAS article failing to detect transgenes in maize from Oaxaca, Mexico
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Given the large number of requests for comment from us regarding the article recently appeared in PNAS (below), we would like to make the following statements, preliminary to a deeper commentary.
Initial statement by Ignacio Chapela and David Quist
Contact: ichapela@nature.berkeley.edu, dquist@nature.berkeley.edu
10 August, 2005

Ortiz-García, S., Ezcurra, E., Schoel, B., Acevedo, F., Soberón, J. and Snow, A.A. 2005. Absence of Detectable Transgenes in local landraces of maize in Oaxaca, Mexico (2003-2004). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


We were surprised by the results and statements presented in this paper. We had no prior knowledge of the contents or conclusions of the paper until it was being discussed in the media, a few days ago. On first approach, it seems to us highly suspect that transgenic DNA may have been widespread in local landraces of maize in Mexico in 2000-2001, as demonstrated in at least 3 separate studies, would suddenly become absent within a couple of years.

Part of our surprise stemmed also from our knowledge that three of the authors in this paper have made many categorical public representations prior to this paper which lie in diametrical contradiction to the negative results paper presented in PNAS. Although their statements were never published in a peer-reviewed journal, we must presume that those contradictory categorical statements were based on real samples and analyses. We do not know whether the results presented now in PNAS are derived from the same samples, what differences in method they applied, and how much the change in their conclusion is determined not by a biological or social phenomenon, but rather by a change in the author’s assumptions and expectations. We reserve our judgement in this regard until these contradictions are explained. We call upon the authors of the PNAS paper to clearly explain the change in their statements from one year to the next.

We continue to be surprised by the interpretation of the significance of this paper as well as by the many representations made about it by the authors for the general public and the media. We are deeply concerned by the conclusions being drawn from those representations in terms of GMO policy and trade, since we feel that these conclusions are not warranted by this paper’s results or the interpretation of those results.

We have noticed troubling methodological and technical problems in the PNAS paper which would have deserved close attention before publication, and certainly before any conclusions could be drawn from it. We are writing a first rebuttal of the paper dealing with these questions, and will make this rebuttal public as soon as it is carefully reviewed and considered by our colleagues. News about this rebuttal will be posted at http://www.pulseofscience.org.

Given the fact that the paper was published nonetheless, and that conclusions from the biological to the policy and commercial levels are quickly being used in developing policy, we strongly recommend caution in deriving policy from this paper. The scientific community needs the opportunity to apply scrutiny to this work, so that discourse can help guide exactly what can be said about this work. For now, there are certainly more questions than answers brought by this research, will need to be answered through thorough scientific scrutiny and continued research on the fate of transgenes in and out of Mexican maize. Stay tuned.

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