The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "genetic engineering" ...
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Genetic Modified Food
In a two-part series, senior investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian examined the business of genetic engineering and the growing impact it is having on the way we grow food, and what we eat. Part one take a look at the business practices of Mondsanto, a major bio-tech seed maker, which patents its genetically modified seeds. Monsanto sells the seed to farmers but prohibits them from replanting their seeds after harvest, a practice known to farmers for 11,000 years. In the story, the team found that Monsanto has been coming after small farmers for seed piracy, suing them when Monsanto suspects farmers of planting its patented seeds "illegally" even when those farmers have never purchased or planted and Monsanto products. Part two examines the secret changes to our foods and asks, why don't we, in the U.S., label genetically modified ingredients when it is done with regular practice in Europe, Japan, Australia and our trading partners? Whether we realize it or not, we probably ate something for dinner last night that had a DNA-altered ingredient in it, but the FDA says that these ingredients do not have to be labeled and therefore no one knows when they are eating genetically modified foods.
Tags: Monsanto; genetically modified food; soybeans; farming; agriculture; seed cleaning; food
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Seeds of Deception
This explosive expose reveals how industry manipulation and political collusion - not sound science - allow dangerous genetically engineered food into your daily diet.
Tags: BOOK; questionnaire included
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A Study In Ethics
What happens when medical research is conducted without informed consent? The Virginian Pilot details the story of a controversial research experiment conducted by the Eastern Virginia Medical School. The experiment, that required nearly 200 preschoolers to be exposed to a genetically engineered substance, had to be ceased after one parent complained about it being done without their informed consent. The report includes thoughts and opinions by medical ethicists, academicians and the EVMS staff themselves.
Tags: Medicine; Research; Ethics; child care; parent
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Pandora's Pantry
Genetically engineered foods have risks that the U.S. government ignored during the approval process. Now companies like Monsanto and Novartis Seeds are facing stiff opposition to these foods in other countries. The protests could move to the U.S. with people asking questions that perhaps should have been asked years ago.
Tags: genetics; genetically enhanced foods; biotechnology; bioengineering; DNA; Monsanto; FDA
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Building a Better Mosquito
Geneticists are trying to engineer a better mosquito--one that will be incapable of transmitting disease. Yet, it remains to be seen if people will accept these custom-made bugs outside of the lab.
Tags: mosquitos; malaria; genetic engineering; genetics; science
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Lobbying, old-time politics block legislation on human cloning
The Center looks at the implications of the lack of federal laws regulating cloning research. The report finds that the absence of a legal mechanism prevents mainstream researchers from responsibly tapping into new technologies such as genetic engineering.
Tags: TRANSCRIPT; stem cell research; human cloning; genetic technologies; bills
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Will the Black Death return
Discover examines the chances for a new plague epidemic, pointing to isolated cases of the disease in recent decades. The article tells the history of the "black death's" dissemination and cites scientific studies on plague epidemics in Europe, China and India. The story reveals that Russian bioweapon scientists have developed an antibiotic-resistant plague, and warns against the risk of using plague or anthrax as formidable weapons in bioterrorism wars. Plague can never be eradicated, because it hides in animal reservoirs, finds Discover.
Tags: terrorism; plague; cholera; hygiene; Middle Ages; death; mortality; genetic engineering; weapons; antibiotics; rodents; rats; DNA; anthrax; epidemics
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Sowing Technology; Spinning Science into Gold; A Nation of Lab Rats
The Sierra Magazine examines the achievements of the modern agribusiness as a "self-contained factory" with sophisticated tools and techniques. The story package finds that "the concern about genetic engineering isn't that it enables us to commit altogether new mistakes; it's that it perfects out ability to commit old ones." The authors point out that the "overriding question about biotechnology is not whether we are for or against this or that technical achievement, but whether the debate will be carried out in such fragmented terms." The articles describe in detail most of the tools of the modern biotechnology, and look at the question whether we are "losing sight of ... the diverse and complex communities and habitats we live in."
Tags: ecology; genetic engineering; agriculture; FDA; cold tolerance; disease resistance; bacteria; environment; health; biomedicines
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Making a New Mosquito
Spielman and D'Antonio report how some scientists "are trying to deprive mosquitos of their ability to spread parasitic infections" such as malaria and dengue fever by altering the genetic makeup of the mosquitos. The strategy of one entomologist, Alexander Raikhel, proposes boosting "the immune response of mosqitos so that they kill pathogens they would normally harbor and pass on to humans." Raikhel and other scientists would release the genetically mutated mosquitos into the wild, allowing them to pass along their traits to wild mosquitos. However, genetic manipulation of mosquitos "is not without risk." At worse, it could "lead to "epidemics as wild mosquitos rebound."
Tags: mosquito; genetic engineering; malaria; disease; DNA
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Who's Minding the Store?
Reporter Jeff Wheelwright investigates StarLink corn and the increase in genetically engineered crops over the last five years. His reporting depicts how scientists have genetically altered corn to increase bushel numbers while uncovering how Americans may not know the consequences of these genetic alterations.
Tags: hybridization; Food and Drug Administration; Environmental Protection Agency; consumers; StarLink corn