Although Fringe is being supplanted by the nation’s favorite past time this week, we received quite a few emails from folks who saw last night’s episode of CSI: Miami – “Bad Seed”. After watching the episode online, I have to say it was utterly shocking. And really, for a number of reasons… so let’s start with the most obvious ones.

We spent last year defending science from the constant onslaughts of Jerry Bruckheimer’s CBS series, Eleventh Hour (hence the name of Eleventh Hour Facts). We sat through all the episodes, no matter how ridiculous the “science” that he employed in the plotline. So you can imagine our surprise when “Bad Seed” turned out to be a recycled episode of Eleventh Hour called “Agro” – even with some of the actors who appeared in Eleventh Hour! Lazy? Probably… but what is worrying is that Jerry Bruckheimer clearly has a bone to pick with biotech crops, without ever even considering the actual facts about the wonder that is modern agriculture.

Bruckheimer’s premise in “Bad Seed” is that crazy mad scientists in a corporate lab mixed botulism DNA in with corn DNA willy-nilly, and it is now out killing everyone who eats a certain strain of corn. As we’ve seen so many times with Jerry, this makes for fascinating fiction, with little science attached. There was even mention of there not being any real federal regulation of these biotech products. This is not only a flat-out lie, but flies in the face of so many researchers who have worked so hard to feed our growing global population. So, here is what actually happens when it comes to the approval of biotech crops.

Every biotech crop endures years and years of safety approval processes before it’s released into the market for human or animal consumption…

For one, the USDA examines data regarding the agricultural and environmental safety of the crop. They also want to see data that show this new crop is no more likely to succumb to disease or insect attack than a comparable non-biotech variety. The agency also needs data to demonstrate that the crop will not adversely affect threatened and endangered species or harm their habitat.

In yet another corner of DC, the FDA holds a voluntary consultation process (with which everyone complies) where they examine the nutritional equivalency of the new crop (and food made from it) with a non-biotech counterpart. The FDA is specifically interested in gross changes in the levels of nutrients, increases in allergens and toxic substances, and increases in anti-nutritive substances (chemicals that make key nutrients less absorbable).

And lastly, the EPA looks at crops that produce pesticidal substances. So they need data regarding the environmental safety of the substance, its persistence in the environment, its effects on non-target organisms (Monarch butterflies, for example), and the level of the pesticide residue in the crop at harvest.

And in one final moment of dubious scientific merit for Bruckheimer, there was a flaccid attempt at torpedoing biotechnology in general by raising the scaaary specter of what they call “cell conjugation”. Now… what would happen in the real world is that a scientist would move a bacterial gene with a desired function (like enhanced digestibility) into corn. The process of genetic engineering has been sufficiently refined so that a single gene (or a single DNA piece) is moved, and there is no way that the ability to “conjugate” would be moved along with the gene. While larger pieces of DNA could be moved in an experiment setting, this would never take place in a crop intended for commercial use. Plus, where are these “surrounding traits” that the corn absorbed? It’s not as if only these two traits would have moved and nothing else. Patently absurd.

Once again, in the interest of entertainment, Bruckheimer has led prime-time TV audiences (TWICE!) to wonder about the safety of their food. It’s important that TV audiences be able to separate fact from fiction, understand how America is able to provide the safest and most affordable food supply on the planet, and learn how biotechnology is helping to bring such food prosperity to developing nations.