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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] #11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
  • Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 09:25:54 -0600


#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/
Sources:

Independent/UK, May 22, 2005
Title: Revealed: “Health Fears Over Secret Study in GM Food”
Author: Geoffrey Lean

Organic Consumers Association website, June 2,2005
Title: “Monsanto's GE Corn Experiments on Rats Continue to Generate
Global Controversy”
Authors: GM Free Cymru

Independent/UK, January 8, 2006
Title: GM: New Study Shows Unborn Babies Could Be Harmed”
Author: Geoffrey Lean

Le Monde and Truthout, February 9, 2006
Title: “New Suspicions About GMOs”
Author: Herve Kempf

Faculty Evaluator: Michael Ezra
Student Researchers: Destiny Stone and Lani Ready

Several recent studies confirm fears that genetically modified (GM) foods
damage human health. These studies were released as the World Trade
Organization (WTO) moved toward upholding the ruling that the European
Union has violated international trade rules by stopping importation of GM
foods.

* Research by the Russian Academy of Sciences released in December 2005
found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed GM soy died within
the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those born to mothers
fed on non-modified soy. Six times as many offspring fed GM soy were also
severely underweight.
* In November 2005, a private research institute in Australia, CSIRO
Plant Industry, put a halt to further development of a GM pea cultivator
when it was found to cause an immune response in laboratory mice.1
* In the summer of 2005, an Italian research team led by a cellular
biologist at the University of Urbino published confirmation that
absorption of GM soy by mice causes development of misshapen liver cells,
as well as other cellular anomalies.
* In May of 2005 the review of a highly confidential and controversial
Monsanto report on test results of corn modified with Monsanto MON863 was
published in The Independent/UK.

Dr. Arpad Pusztai (see Censored 2001, Story #7), one of the few genuinely
independent scientists specializing in plant genetics and animal feeding
studies, was asked by the German authorities in the autumn of 2004 to
examine Monsanto’s 1,139-page report on the feeding of MON863 to
laboratory rats over a ninety-day period.

The study found “statistically significant” differences in kidney
weights and certain blood parameters in the rats fed the GM corn as
compared with the control groups. A number of scientists across Europe who
saw the study (and heavily-censored summaries of it) expressed concerns
about the health and safety implications if MON863 should ever enter the
food chain. There was particular concern in France, where Professor
Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen has been trying (without
success) for almost eighteen months to obtain full disclosure of all
documents relating to the MON863 study.

Dr. Pusztai was forced by the German authorities to sign a “declaration
of secrecy” before he was allowed to see the Monsanto rat feeding study,
on the grounds that the document is classified as “CBI” or
“confidential business interest.” While Pusztai is still bound by the
declaration of secrecy, Monsanto recently declared that it does not object
to the widespread dissemination of the “Pusztai Report.”2

Monsanto GM soy and corn are widely consumed by Americans at a time when
the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has concluded,
“In several cases, GMOs have been put on the market when safety issues
are not clear.”

As GMO research is not encouraged by U.S. or European governments, the vast
majority of toxicological studies are conducted by those companies
producing and promoting consumption of GMOs. With motive and authenticity
of results suspect in corporate testing, independent scientific research
into the effects of GM foods is attracting increasing attention.

Comment: In May 2006 the WTO upheld a ruling that European countries broke
international trade rules by stopping importation of GM foods. The WTO
verdict found that the EU has had an effective ban on biotech foods since
1998 and sided with the U.S., Canada, and Argentina in a decision that the
moratorium was illegal under WTO rules.3

Notes
1. “GM peas cause immune response–A gap in the approval process?”
http://www.GMO-Compass.org, January 3, 2006.
2. Arpad Pusztai, “Mon863-Pusztai Report,” http://www.GMWatch.org,
September 12, 2004.
3. Bradley S. Clapper, “WTO Faults EU for Blocking Modified Food,”
Associated Press, May 11, 2006.






  • [Livingontheland] #11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed, TradingPostPaul, 05/30/2007

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