One of the primary complaints about genetically engineered foods is that federal regulators have allowed them onto the market without knowing enough about them — their long-term effects on wildlife, for instance, or on other crops, pests and human health. These are real issues, and that made the destruction last week of a research plot of genetically engineered (GE) corn at the University of Maine a doubly malicious act.

Double because now not only have researchers lost what could have been valuable information about these foods, but members of the public with serious questions about the food will be linked to the childish act of a few vandals. At a time when opponents of GE food should be demanding increased research, these selfish individuals decided it was more important to make a statement than make progress in understanding the new foods.

And what was the statement? That they would rather not know the answers to the questions they are asking? That only they decide who gets to answer those questions? Or, more specifically, that the pollen from GE corn is so dangerous to surrounding plants that even test plots should not be allowed? If that were the case, they should have been out in the corn plot about eight weeks ago.

The researcher on the half-acre stand of corn was John Jemison, a water quality specialist with the university’s Cooperative Extension. He wanted to know how the genetic changes to the plants would affect their resistance to the herbicide Roundup. Hs comments on the destruction should have people on all sides of the GE question nodding in agreement. It may be that I find that farmers shouldn’t be using this crop, he said. But I won’t know until I study it. The people responsible for this didn’t even want me to try. That doesn’t sit well with academics.

It should not sit well with anyone. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman earlier this summer changed the Clinton administration’s policy on GE foods when he observed that many of the questions about these foods are legitimate, and suggested that a study of the long-term health effects of the foods was in order. It’s hard to do that if opponents are going to take machetes to the test crops.

Finding effective means to grow safe and abundant crops already is challenging enough. GE food may not prove to be the answer. But prove is the key word. And proving can take place only after research — not the sort of vandalism, intimidation and senseless destruction that occured last week.