Genetically Engineered Foods

Genetic Modification (29.04.2005)
GM Food
An original article (Dr Mercola)

The British agriculture minister was meeting with European ministers in Brussels to vote on genetically modified (GM) 'foods', and wanted a scientific opinion on various documents. The Pusztais had conducted safety tests on a new variety of GM potatoes intended for commercialisation and were among the most qualified scientists in the world to evaluate the papers.

The research that these documents described was "incredibly poor" and he described it as superficial, flimsy, and just plain bad science. Arpad Pusztais was the leading researcher in his field, with more than 300 articles and 12 books to his credit. Based on his reputation and experience, the government had awarded him the GM research grant over 27 competing applicants, but reading those studies was a turning point in the life of this very pro-biotech scientist. As a man of integrity, accustomed to thorough and rigorous science, Arpad expected the same from others. But he realized that the approach taken by biotech industry scientists was diametrically opposed to his own. "I was doing safety studies," he said.

"They were doing as little as possible to get their

products to market as quickly as possible."

Naïve perhaps, but it's better to have integrity and be naïve than plain stupid and sold to the Devil. To potentially destroy fellow humans in the pursuit of perceived fame and fortune. This is always very short-lived.

Galileo, Copernicus, Da Vinci, Newton, Einstein.

Men of real stature, but then it was the church and religion. Now it's just the religion of...

Money! Money! Money!

Pusztai called the minister and told him that there was definitely not enough information to declare the foods safe for humans. The minister responded, "I don't know why you are telling me this... I have already accepted it."

It had already been on the market for two years.

The issue is really why in the first place he was asked to review the documents.


Young rats fed a genetically engineered potato developed extensive health problems. Some had smaller, less developed brains, livers, and testicles, and also partial atrophy of the liver. Some suffered damaged immune systems and organ damage. And there was excessive cell growth in the stomach and intestines. The potato was engineered to produce its own insecticide, but the insecticide itself was not the cause of these problems. In fact, other rats that had eaten natural potatoes that were spiked with the insecticide fared much better.


Thus, since the insecticide was not the cause of the poor health of the GM-fed rats, it was almost certainly the process of genetically modifying the potatoes that was the culprit. The soy, corn, and tomatoes that were approved were not tested for these potential problems, but were created with the same process that had engineered the potatoes.

With permission from his director, an invitation to express his concerns about GM food on television was accepted and for two days he was a hero at his institute. But two phone calls from the prime minister's office were allegedly forwarded through the institute's receptionist to the director.

Politically, the truth must be suppressed even if on safety grounds it's an explosive issue.

Arpad Pusztais was fired after 35 years and silenced with threats of a lawsuit. His 20-member research team was dismantled and the UK government abandoned its plans for long-term safety study requirements for GM foods. The Rowett Institute then issued several statements trashing Arpad and his research in an apparent attempt to protect the biotech industry.

Eventually Arpad was invited to speak before Parliament, his gag order lifted, and his research published in the prestigious Lancet. Despite his work being cut off in the middle, his rat study remains the most in-depth animal feeding safety study ever published on GM foods. Tragically, no similar studies have yet been applied to the GM foods on the market. No one is monitoring to see if the organs, immune system, and cells of humans eating GM foods are being similarly influenced.

If you don't look you won't find

Arpad has since been commissioned to review all published animal feeding studies on GM foods. There are only about a dozen. In his paper, published as a chapter in the book Food Safety, he reported consistent shortcomings in industry-sponsored research. Their poor designs allow significant problems to go unnoticed. When problems were identified, they were not followed up.

Arpad and his wife have made presentations on GM foods around the world. In 2001, they appeared before New Zealand's Royal Commission of Inquiry on Genetic Modification, where the sentiments and experience of several other presenters echoed their own.

Are Science and Commerce 'Sleeping in the Same Bed'?

Of course, but not all science

Parliament member Sue Kedgley testified: "Personally I have been contacted by telephone and e-mail by a number of scientists who have serious concerns about aspects of the research that is taking place... and the increasingly close ties that are developing between science and commerce, but who are convinced that if they express these fears publicly, even at such a Commission... or even if they asked the awkward and difficult questions, they will be eased out of their institution."

Mae-Wan Ho, a biophysicist and geneticist, told the Commission that the scientific evidence on GM foods "simply did not support the claims... that the technology is precise and safe." Ho has endured numerous attacks for her opinions, including being hounded out of her position at the UK's Open University.


Epidemiologist Judy Carman testified that the few animal feeding studies on GM foods are too short to adequately test for cancer or for problems in offspring. Further, they are not evaluating "biochemistry, immunology, tissue pathology, gut function, liver function, and kidney function." Carman, who has investigated outbreaks of disease, said that health problems associated with GM foods might be impossible to track in the human population, or take decades to discover.

The perfect commercial cover. When possible future problems occur, it will be years and generations later. Commercial interest supersedes health. Always.

Carman is repeatedly attacked for her critical stance. One pro-GM scientist threatened disciplinary action through her Vice-Chancellor. Another circulated a defamatory letter (a desperate and the lowest barrel-action) to government and university officials in October 2004, alleging that Carman was unethical and that her work was similar to "inaccurate anti-vaccine scaremongering [that] kills people."

Geneticist Michael Antoniou, who works on human gene therapy, told the New Zealand Commission, "genetic engineering technology, as it's being applied in agriculture now, [is] based on the understanding of genetics we had 15 years ago, about genes being isolated little units that work independently of each other." He explained that genes actually "work as an integrated whole of families."

Antoniou represented non-governmental organizations (2003) on the UK's supposedly balanced GM Science Review Panel that was part of the nationwide "GM Nation?" public debate and was shocked to find scientists still supporting obsolete theories of gene independence. Some even claimed that the order of genes in the DNA was entirely irrelevant. Antoniou was outnumbered by eleven scientists representing either the biotech industry or appointed by the pro-biotech UK government. His well-supported arguments fell on deaf ears. Since the debate, new studies have further verified Antoniou's position by showing that genes are not randomly located along the DNA, but clustered into groups with related functions.

Virologist Terje Traavik testified that GM crops "might be the basis for real ecological and health catastrophes." Three years later, in a February 2004 meeting with delegates to the UN biosafety protocol conference, Traavik presented preliminary evidence from three studies which might fulfill his earlier prediction.

• Philippinos living next to a GM cornfield developed serious symptoms while the corn was pollinating
  
  
• Genetic materials routinely inserted into GM crops-were found to transfer to rat organs after a single transgenic meal. Key safety assumptions about genetically engineered viruses were overturned, calling into question the safety of using these viruses as vaccines

"...people who boost genetic engineering are going to have to do a mea culpa and ask for forgiveness, like the Pope did on the inquisition."

"...we made a mistake, let's start over."

Sue Kedgley had another idea:

"I would recommend that perhaps we could set up human clinical trials using volunteers of genetically engineered scientists and their families, because… they are so convinced of the safety of the products that they are creating… they would very readily volunteer to become part of a human clinical trial."