Unsafe Genetically Modified (GM) Foods

Submissions to the US Food and Drug Administraion (FDA) may be worse than in other countries, since the agency doesn't actually require any data. Their policy—overseen by Monsanto's former attorney who later became the company's vice president—says that biotech companies can determine if their own foods are safe. Anything submitted is voluntary and, according to former Environmental Protection Agency scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman, "often lack[s] sufficient detail, such as necessary statistical analyses needed for an adequate safety evaluation." Using Freedom of Information Requests, Gurian-Sherman analyzed more than a fourth of the data summaries of GM crops reviewed by the FDA. He says, "Our evaluation found that the biotechnology companies provide inadequate data to ensure their products are safe".

Two GM foods whose commercialization was stopped because of negative test results give a chilling example of what may be getting through. Rats fed GM potatoes had potentially precancerous cell growth in the stomach and intestines, less developed brains, livers, and testicles, partial atrophy of the liver, and damaged immune systems. GM peas provoked an inflammatory response in mice, suggesting that the peas might trigger a deadly anaphylactic shock in allergic humans. Both of these dangerous crops, however, could easily have been approved. The problems were only discovered because the researchers used advanced tests that were never applied to GM crops already on the market. Both would have passed the normal tests that companies typically use to get their products approved.

Ironically, when Monsanto was asked to comment on the pea study, their spokesperson said it demonstrated that the regulatory system works. He failed to disclose that none of the company's GM crops had been put through such rigorous tests.

Further Reading and literature:
Science Review Letters (Vol. 6 # 180)

Biosafety? Unscientific assumptions the basis of approvals? - blatant propaganda exercise stands validated as exemplary science - Toxic gm foods could have been approved. In: Science Review Letters 2007, Vol. 6, #182

Complete edition of letters published in Online-Magazine "Apiculture"

Copyright: Centre for Ecological Apiculture | Centre for Food Safety and Food Quality | Natural Apitherapy Research Centre