China 
Africa 
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Soil: Earth’s Lifeline
Published in Stanley Manahan, Environmental Chemistry, 2017
Early concerns about the potential of genetic engineering to produce “monster organisms” or new and horrible diseases have been largely allayed, although not entirely so, and resistance to the application of recombinant DNA technology is strong in some quarters. A highly detailed 2016 report on genetically modified crops concluded that there were no harmful effects from such crops but that genetic engineering had not raised crop yields appreciably.13 Opposition to genetically modified crops has been especially strong in Europe, and the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has disallowed a number of transgenic crops. However, caution is still required with this technology. One example of a problem has been the emergence of weeds resistant to glyphosate, which is the most common herbicide applied to transgenic crops bred to have immunity to it. Despite these concerns, transgenic crops are growing in importance, and they have become widely utilized in highly populated countries, particularly China, where they are seen as a means of feeding very large populations.
Modelling testing mechanism for mitigating genetically modified wheat contamination risks
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2019
Houtian Ge, Stephan Goetz, Miguel Gómez, Richard Gray, James Nolan
The discovery of unapproved GM varieties sparks heightened awareness of the vulnerability of SC system to GM contamination risks that wheat products are exposed to if GM wheat is commercialised. To this end, sustained and imaginative modelling efforts are needed to understand the consequences of GM contaminations as well as to identify effective handling strategies and policies before those risks undermine the integrity of the SC. The regulation of genetic engineering concerns the approaches taken by governments to assess and manage the risks associated with the development and release of genetically modified crops. To date, few studies have been conducted to address the potential risks associated with current illegally grown GM wheat and commercial introduction of GM wheat, or explore risk mitigation strategies. In this work, after characterising the basic analytics of the problem motivating the analysis, we explicitly conceptualise the U.S. wheat SC in a realistic manner and then develop testing strategies that most efficiently balance the trade-off between testing costs and contamination risks for grain handlers. In this manner, our work examines innovative risk mitigation strategies with this food safety issue. This study generates several products that will be of interest to other researchers, industry practitioner and government officials concerned with the commercialisation of GM wheat. Those include practice regulation and grain policies such as testing protocol, traceability scheme, penalty mechanism and risk-sharing contract specifications.