WEEK 5 -- Feb. 17

Discussion: Insights from annotated bibliography 2 (30 min.)

Lecture: Health biosafety of foods derived from GEOs (60 min,)
- Toxicants - change endogenous, transfer of novel
- Allergens - change endogenous, transfer of novel
- Antibiotic resistance marker genes
- Nutrient content changes
Click here to view PowerPoint presentation of lecture.

Discussion: Issues raised by lecture and readings. (40 min.)

Group Activity: Planning for annotated bibliography 3. (30 min.)

Readings due Week 6:
All: 1st part of Kapuscinski, A.R. "Controversies in designing useful ecological assessments of organisms". In Genetically Engineered Organisms, pp. 385-401. (reprint distributed in class)

Manual for Assessing Ecological and Human Health Effects of Genetically Engineered Organisms (hereafter called the Manual), Part One --, pp. ix-xv; pp. 1-20; pp. 96-105 (section titled Flowchart VIII. Overview of Food Safety). Part Two - read 1 completed worksheet and follow its path through flow-charts.

Draft Codex Alimentarius Guideline for the conduct of food safety assessment of foods derived from recombinant-DNA plants (At Step 8 of the Elaboration Process)

Due Week 7: Annotated Bibliography 3 -- on food and human health biosafety science regarding the group case-such as scientific basis for such questions; research done on questions about food safety and human health effects; scientific knowledge and methods from various disciplines (e.g., toxicology, immunology, food science and nutrition) that could be applied to questions. Resources on GE food safety:

Royal Society of Canada. 2001. Elements of Precaution: Recommendations for the Regulation of Food Biotechnology in Canada. An Expert Panel Report on the Future of Food Biotechnology. http://www.rsc.ca/foodbiotechnology/GMreportEN.pdf

World Health Organization 2000. Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Foods Derived from Biotechnology. http://www.who.int/fsf/GMfood/scientific_advice_index.htm

Overview of WHO work on foods derived from modern biotechnology: http://www.who.int/fsf/GMfood/