You Say Tomato, I Say 'Ick'.(genetically modified foods)(Brief Article)

Most corn in the United States now contains a gene, transplanted from a bacterium, that gives the corn the ability to repel insects. Although millions of Americans happily scarf it down each day, Europeans have been adamant in their dislike of such genetically modified foods. For two years the European Union has neglected to approve a single new product. Last week's 338 to 52 vote by the European Parliament to set new regulations for GM crops is the first step in the effort to put them on the dinner table.

Reversing European attitudes won't be easy. A jury acquitted former Greenpeace supremo Lord Melchett and cohorts last September even though they admitted destroying a crop of experimental maize. A recent poll reported that 64 percent of British shoppers would prefer to buy food made from animals fed only non-GM diets. Says Paul Muys, a spokesman for the EuropaBio trade group, "Experience has taught us not to be overenthusiastic."

Most of the known risks are small. If, say, Monsanto's Round-up Ready gene, which makes soybean plants resistant to herbicides, manages to spread to weeds, it would be a nuisance and probably nothing more. But what if, for instance, the pollen of bioengineered corn, laden with pesticides, drifts over to milkweed, the food of the monarch butterfly? "I don't think we're talking about wiping out a whole species," says John Losey, an entomologist at Cornell University whose studies show that the pollen would kill monarchs. "The risks are hard to get a handle on."

Scientists have a better grasp of the risk to people. Allergies are the biggest ...