GM food nightmare unfolding in the regulatory sham

Figures & data

Table I.  Accumulating evidence on the health hazards of GM food and feed.

Between 2005 and 2006, scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences reported that female rats fed glyphosate-tolerant GM soybeans produced excessive numbers of severely stunted pups and more than half of the litter dying within 3 weeks, while the surviving pups are completely sterile (main article). Between 2004 and 2005, hundreds of farm workers and cotton handlers in Madhya Pradesh, India, suffered allergy symptoms from exposure to Bt cotton containing Cry1Ac or both Cry1Ac and Cry1Ab proteins [10]. Between 2005 and 2006, thousands of sheep died after grazing on Bt cotton crop residues in four villages in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh in India [11]. In 2005, scientists at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra Australia tested a transgenic pea containing a normally harmless protein in bean (alpha-amylase inhibitor 1), and found it caused inflammation in the lungs of mice and provoked sensitivities to other proteins in the diet [12], [13]. From 2002 to 2005, scientists at the Universities of Urbino, Perugia and Pavia in Italy published reports indicating that GM-soya fed to young mice affected cells in the pancreas, liver and testes [14–18]. In 2003, villagers in the south of the Philippines suffered mysterious illnesses when a Monsanto Bt maize hybrid containing Cry1Ab protein came into flower; antibodies to the Cry1Ab protein were found in the villagers, there have been at least five unexplained deaths and some remain ill to this day [19]. In 2004, Monsanto's secret research dossier showed that rats fed MON863 GM maize containing Cry3Bb protein developed serious kidney and blood abnormalities [20] (see main text). Between 2001 and 2002, a dozen cows died in Hesse, Germany after eating Syngenta GM maize Bt176 containing Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac plus glufosinate-tolerance; and more in the herd had to be slaughtered from illnesses [21]. In 1998, Arpad Pusztai and colleagues formerly of the Rowett Institute in Scotland reported damage in every organ system of young rats fed GM potatoes containing snowdrop lectin, including a stomach lining twice as thick as controls [22]. Also in 1998, scientists in Egypt found similar effects in the gut of mice fed Bt potato containing a Cry1A protein [23]. The US Food and Drug Administration had data dating back to early 1990s showing that rats fed GM tomatoes with antisense gene to delay ripening had developed small holes in their stomach [22]. In 2002, Aventis company (later Bayer Cropscience) submitted data to UK regulators showing that chickens fed glufosinate-tolerant GM maize Chardon LL were twice as likely to die compared with controls [24].

Table II.  Potential hazards of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Synthetic genes and gene products new to evolution could be toxic for humans and other animals or provoke serious immune reactions The uncontrollable, imprecise process involved in making GMOs mutate and scramble genomes and can generate unintended toxic and immunogenic products; this is exacerbated by the instability of the transgenic DNA Endogenous viruses that cause diseases could be activated by the transgenic process The synthetic genes in GMOs, including copies of genes from bacteria and viruses that cause disease as well as antibiotic resistance genes, may be transferred to other species via pollen, or by direct integration into other genomes in horizontal gene transfer Disease-causing viruses and bacteria are created by horizontal transfer and recombination, and genetic modification is nothing if not facilitated and greatly enhanced horizontal gene transfer and recombination Transgenic DNA is designed to invade genomes, including those of animals and human beings, and its strong synthetic promoters may trigger cancer by activating cellular oncogenes Herbicide-tolerant GM crops accumulate herbicide and herbicide residues that could be highly toxic to humans and animals as well as plants

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