Genetically Engineered Food - Safety Problems

Cows ate GE maize and died - the same gene as in GE maize for humans
Twelve dairy cows died in Hesse, Germany after being fed Syngenta's Bt 176 GE maize; and other cows had to be slaughtered due to mysterious illnesses.

A chief suspect for the death of the cows is the toxic Bt protein contained in the Bt 176 Maize. Syngenta says that the same toxic protein is found in Bt 11-Maize intended for human food.

Studies conducted in Japan in 2003 clearly showed that undigested Bt toxin is present in calf stomach, intestine and dung after being fed Bt 11 maize; and these results have been replicated in further experiments in pigs. This supports the suspiscion that it was the Bt-toxin that killed the cows.

The fact that Syngenta has not withdrawn its Bt-Maize in spite of this indicates a serious lack of responsibility. It indicates that it is dangerous to let the biotech corporations make the safety assessment of their products (as is the practice today, see "Inadequate safety assessment of GE foods") and not independent institutes.


Over 50% of newborn rats died within 3 weeks when mothers were fed with GE soya
36% were severely stunted

More than half the offspring of soya fed rats died in the the first three weeks of life. This was six times as many as with normal diet. Of those who survived, six times many as those eating normal diet, had underweight.

"The morphology and biochemical structures of rats are very similar to those of humans, and this makes the results very disturbing" according to the scientists who did the research.



Virus genes from GE foods can end up among your own genes

Genes (DNA) from the cells, including the meat, of chicken who had eaten only genetically engineered Bt corn contained pieces of DNA from this food. This DNA contains virus genes that are suspected to be cancerogenic or otherwise pathogenic. This means that if you eat GE foods, virus genes that may be harmful, can end up in your cells.


Liver changes from GE food

Liver changes were found in mice fed on Genetically Engineered Soy Beans.

Ultramicroscopic study revealed significant changes in the cell nucleus.

This abnormality in the liver cells indicates that GE foods may cause serious disturbances in cellular function that may affect health.


Mass death of Sheep from grazing GE cotton field
At least 1 820 sheep were reported dead after grazing on post-harvest Bt cotton crops; the symptoms and post-mortem findings strongly suggest they died from severe toxicity.

This was uncovered in a preliminary investigation conducted by civil society organisations in just four villages in India. The actual problem is likely to be much greater.

This is the second instance of GE-plants killing animals feeding upon it. In both this case, and that of cows killed as described above, the plants were genetically manipulated with a gene producing the insect toxin of Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt).
The serious thing about this is that the same toxin-producing gene is found in some GE-foods intended for human consumption, including GE-maize (for example Syngenta Bt11 Maize) and GE-potatoes (recently offered to Russia).


GE soy may cause long time allergy problems

The inserted gene in the soy contains an allergenic sequence common to shrimps protein. It is suspected that it may cause persistent allergy problems because it is taken up by intestinal bacteria who can continue producing the allergenic protein.

In the UK there was a 50% increase of GE soy allergy after the introduction of Monsantos RR soy. The connection could not be definitely proven, considering the mentioned allergen in RR soy, scientists find it likely that it was the cause.


GE Maize approved as human food caused negative effects in mice

The research on NK603 maize from Monsanto was independently assessed by the independent french research institute CRIIGEN. In a report, released in June 2007, they pointed out that there were 60 significant differences between rats that were fed the GE maize and those fed normal maize (all for 90 days). The first group showed differences in their kidney, brain, heart and liver measurements, as well as significant weight differences.

CRIIGEN concludes that the results indicate a negative effect of the maize.

Animals Avoid GE Food

Experimental and anecdotal evidence shows that animals seek to avoid GE food and do not thrive if forced to consume such food.

In a study, the mortality rate was twice as high among the chickens eating GE maize as compared with those fed commercial non-GE hybrid maize.

An anonymous scientist reported: "Generally, the reports are concerned with Bt maize. Many farmers feed maize to their cattle just as it grows, without mixing in other feedstuffs. Typical reports are that the farmer buys a new shipment of maize, which his cattle either refuse to eat or eat with reduced consumption. Upon making enquiries, he discovers that the maize is a genetically modified variety. When he replaces it with a non-modified maize, the cattle start eating again. There have been dozens of such reports over the last two years."


GE crops causing agricultural crisis in Argentina

Argentina has suffered an environmental crisis with 'superweeds' overrunning the countryside and farmers reporting health problems, experts warn.

Since 1997, genetically-modified soya has been planted over almost half the country's arable land. Now farmers are having to use more and more herbicides to control the resistant weeds, damaging the soil's fertility for generations.

A study, detailed in the respected journal New Scientist, has found that over-use of weedkillers is rendering the soil 'inert' - and directly affecting human health.


FDA suppressed report on harmful effects of GE food

The safety of the first GE product intended for human food, the GE-tomato Flavrsavr, was studied very extensively and the result was used as a showcase of the safety of GE food. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of USA stated that the "proven safety of FlavrSavr" demonstrated that GE-foods in general are safe, and decided consequently not to demand as rigorous safety examinations for other GE-foods. In stead a very liberal procedure based on the principle of "substantial equivalence" was established, which did not require any careful testing of toxic or other harmful substances.

This decision was completely unscientific, as it is a well established fact that every case of genetic engineering has unique effects, so it is not justified to draw a general conclusion from a special case.

Moreover, several years later it was discovered that, in one of the "safety showcase" reports, it was found that the GE-tomato Flavrsavr caused lesions in the stomachs of mice. However, this finding was suppressed by FDA.

It was also discovered that, prior to FDA's decision to allow GE foods to be used as human food, FDA's own scientific experts expressed serious concerns concerning the safety of GE foods. They warned that genetic engineering is different than traditional breeding techniques and may have different risks.

The liberal safety assessment procedure established by FDA in 1994 has been applied on all GE foods in the market today and it is still applied in spite of extensive and serious critisism from a large number of scientific experts.


Leading Scientist sacked after presidential intervention

Dr Arpad Pusztai, a world renowned nutrition expert, expressed doubts about the safety of GE foods on BBC TV "World In Action broadcast" in August 1998. Because he was a leading expert, this was a great sensation. So Pusztai's critisim was aired all over the world.

But a few days later again, all over the world, the story was aired that he was an old man (68) who had confused his results, making wrong conclusions. This was however a lie. Now it has been revealed that Blair was forced by President Clinton to sack him and to create a suitable excuse to disregard Pusztais opinion.


These are only a few selected news items among the increasing number of disquieting facts presented at this website. Please return to the start page for more.


"Genetically Engineered Food - Safety Problems"
Published by PSRAST




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genetically modified food
July 27th, 2007 by levani

“Genetically Modified (GM) foods are produced from genetically modified organisms (GMO) which have had their genome altered through genetic engineering techniques. The general principle of producing a GMO is to insert DNA that has been taken from another organism and modified in the laboratory into an organism’s genome to produce both new and useful traits or phenotypes. Typically this is done using DNA from certain types of bacteria” (www.wikipedia.com).

Some argue that there is more than enough food in the world and that the hunger crisis is caused by problems in food distribution and politics, not production, so people should not be offered food that may carry some degree of risk.

Others oppose genetic engineering on the grounds that genetic modifications might have unforeseen consequences, both in the initially modified organisms and their environments. Activists opposed to genetic engineering say that with current recombinant technology there is no way to ensure that genetically modified organisms will remain under control, and the use of this technology outside secure laboratory environments carries potentially unacceptable risks to both farmed and wild ecosystems. Although some scientists have claimed that selective breeding is a form of genetic engineering, (e.g., maize was modified from teosinte, dogs have evolved with human intervention over the course of tens of thousands of years from wolves), others assert that modern transgenesis-based genetic engineering is capable of delivering changes faster than, and sometimes of different types from, traditional breeding methods.

This problem is espacially acute for the USA. There are a lot agencies and organizations which try to solve this problem. One of the biggest is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). It is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating food, dietary supplements, drugs, biological medical products, blood products, medical devices, radiation-emitting devices, veterinary products, and cosmetics in the United States. Of course it has several serious achivements in this field but the most important problem is that only less than 1% of imported (in the USA) food is inspected by this agency. Besides, it has no control on some very popular food in the USA. So, FDA’s existence maybe is under a big question. We think that this problem must be solved because our lives depend on this, we eat either poisoned or fresh and pure food depends on this. The FDA and such kind of agencies must cover this uncontroled food. We must be sure that the food that goes from our nation’s ports to our families’ dinner tables is safe.