[Avian2005] Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed

[Guest guest]

Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed

Posted by: " lowell_journalist " lowell_journalist

lowell_journalist

Tue Feb 6, 2007 8:19 am (PST)

 

 

http://www.projectc ensored.org/ censored_ 2007/index. htm

<http://www.projectc ensored.org/ censored_ 2007/index. htm>

 

Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed

 

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 <http://www.gmo-

compass.org/> ,

January 3, 2006.

2. Arpad Pusztai, " Mon863-Pusztai Report, "

http://www.GMWatch. org, <http://www.gmwatch. org,/> September 12,

2004.

3. Bradley S. Clapper, " WTO Faults EU for Blocking Modified

Food, " Associated Press, May 11, 2006.