Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai recently published a systems biology paper in Agricultural Sciences. The report left much to be desired, and was critically analyzed here. The anti-GMO activist community exploded with the news that “GMOs are full of formaldehyde”, of course not realizing that the paper represented a deeply flawed and testable conclusion, that was not tested.
Nowhere in the existing literature, where tens of thousands of plant products have been analyzed, did anyone find actual measurements that match the predictions. When your computer prediction is wrong, then why publish it?
Because it did exactly what it set out to do — create fear and controversy around technology that folks like Ayyadurai and his spouse, the fabulous Fran Drescher, fail to appreciate.
Fran and Shiva have been vigorously defending the work online, with Drescher even making the bold (tired) claim that scientists are all just working “4 monsanto”. She’s even been so bold as to demand testing for formaldehye on all GM products based on hubby’s computational synthesis.
It is really simple to measure formaldehyde levels quantitatively in plant extracts. I’ve started to build a collection of materials to actually do the test. I’ve invited Ayyadurai via Twitter to come to UF and do the extractions and analysis with me. We can do this in a couple of days, no problem. It probably should be video recorded just for transparency, and we can make a YouTube video afterwards.
In addition, I’ll cover the cost of taking a subset of the materials, chosen by Ayyadurai, and sent to independent analysis. We will include formaldehyde-spiked samples as positive controls.
I’m usually not so rude, but since Drescher used the term, how about #ShowUporShutUp?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: GMO Formaldehyde Challenge!
