FIRST
READ:
California's Proposition
37; the night mare for Mosanto technophobes: GMO labeling revolution and the
Protection of our God Given Organic Heritage
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/09/californias-proposition-37-night-mare.html
French Study Finds Tumors and Organ Damage in Rats Fed Monsanto Corn
Wednesday, 19 September 2012 13:36
Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto's genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company's popular Roundup herbicide developed tumors and suffered severe organ damage, according to a French study released on Wednesday.The study could have a big impact on the battle over a California ballot proposal that would require groceries containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled as such. Monsanto has already donated $7.1 million to the campaign to defeat the proposal, known as Proposition 37.
The study links varying levels of both the Roundup herbicide and the transgenes in Monsanto's patented NK603 corn to mammary tumors and severe liver and kidney damage.
The rats were either fed the NK603 corn alone, corn treated with agricultural levels of Roundup, or given water treated with Roundup at low levels commonly found in contaminated drinking water and used in agriculture in the United States. In each group, there were two to three more deaths compared to control groups, and the rats on the Monsanto diet died more quickly.
Gilles-Eric Séralini, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen who lead the research team, told reporters on Wednesday that the rats' diet reflected the kind of exposure that humans who eat genetically engineered food should expect.
"This is around the level [that] the American population may eat, where, unfortunately GMOs are not labeled," Séralini said. "In Europe, we have this labeling, and it helps us to avoid these compounds if necessary and promote personal choices."
The research team concluded that NK603's transgenic traits and the endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup herbicide could explain the results. The study is the first of its kind to link enzymes overexpressed by transgenes to health problems, Séralini said.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals cause health problems and cancers by impacting hormonal glands in mammals and are especially dangerous to children. Pesticide and herbicide critics often fear that chemicals used to kill weeds and pests could potentially be endocrine disruptors in humans.
Monsanto's NK603 and other varieties of corn are genetically engineered to tolerate Roundup herbicide, which contains the plant poison glyphosate and other additives, so that farmers can spray whole fields of crops to kill weeds while sparing the genetically modified corn. Genetically engineered crops are also known as genetically modified organisms, or GMO's.
Good News for Proposition 37
"The results of this study are worrying," said Gary Ruskin, who manages a campaign to pass the food-labeling initiative in California. "They underscore the importance of giving California families the right to know whether our food is genetically engineered, and to decide for ourselves whether we want to gamble with our health by eating GMO foods that have not been adequately studied and have not been proven safe."
Ruskin's Yes on Proposition 37 campaign, which is supported by organic food companies and alternative health groups, has been vastly outspent by a campaign to defeat the ballot initiative funded by millions of dollars in donations from biotech chemical companies and food manufacturers such as Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer and Nestle.
Polls taken this summer, however, show that Proposition 37 remains popular among a majority of voters despite a multimillion-dollar campaign against the initiative.
GMO Information War
A spokesperson for Monsanto told Truthout that the company will thoroughly review the data, but pointed out that scientific claims made by Séralini in regards to previous studies on rats have been refuted by a European food regulatory agency.
In the past, Séralini, an independent scientist celebrated by biotech critics, has publicly wrangled with peer scientists, pro-industry groups and regulators over interpretations of data from 90-day studies on rats conducted by biotech companies that were used to justify regulatory approvals of Monsanto crops in several countries.
Séralini and his team believe the study released this week is more conclusive because it spans two years and followed the rats' entire lifecycle.
"It's bizarre and dramatic for us that the US government," said Séralini, "has not requested to make serious tests before releasing these products into the environment because these GMOs are pesticide sponges, and we know that pesticides can be harmful to humans."
Séralini also pointed out that his team started to see tumors after four months, while the industry studies on rats were limited to a three-month period.
"It shows the genetically modified foods should be withdrawn," said biotech critic and author Jeffrey Smith. Smith said the study further confirms reports he has heard from doctors and veterinarians who say they've seen their patient's health improve after they stopped eating genetically engineered foods.
In 2010, a lead embryologist in Argentina named Dr. Andrés Carrasco survived an attacked by an angry mob determined to keep him from speaking at a public event about his own research on Roundup, which found that the herbicide caused deformations in chicken embryos that resembled birth defects in humans being reported in the country's agricultural areas where the herbicide is heavily used.
Monsanto Apologists Attempt to Spin Shocking GMO Study
Establishment trots out “experts” in desperate bid to debunk fact that genetically-engineered food is a threat to humanityEstablishment trots out “experts” in desperate bid to debunk fact that genetically-engineered food is a threat to humanity
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
September 21, 2012
A shocking new study conducted by French scientists which shows that rats fed on Monsanto’s genetically modified corn suffered cancer and premature death has been met with a furious response from GMO apologists, who are desperately trying to cast doubt on the the study in an effort to discredit its findings.
50 percent of male and 70 percent of female rats fed on a diet containing NK603 – a genetically modified corn produced by Monsanto – or those exposed to Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller – suffered tumors and multiple organ damage, causing them to die prematurely, the study found.
The study was conducted by French scientists at the University of Caen and published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.
Almost immediately after the findings were made public at a press conference in London, numerous other scientists rushed to Monsanto’s defense and claimed that the study was inaccurate.
“This strain of rat is very prone to mammary tumors particularly when food intake is not restricted,” said Tom Sanders, head of the nutritional sciences research division at King’s College London. “The statistical methods are unconventional … and it would appear the authors have gone on a statistical fishing trip.”
However, the statistical methods are perfectly straightforward. Only 30 percent of males and 20 percent of females in the control group of rats that were not exposed to Monsanto’s products died prematurely – meaning males were 30 per cent more likely to die prematurely after eating Monsanto corn and females a whopping 50 per cent more likely to die.
Sanders’ point about that particular breed of rat being prone to tumors treats the study as if it was conducted without using a control group of rats as a comparison, which is completely untrue.
David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge also tried to cast doubt on the accuracy of the study by highlighting that “The study’s untreated control arm comprised only 10 rats of each sex, most of which also got tumors.”
That statement again completely ignores the fact that the rats, whether they developed tumors or not, were statistically far more likely to die prematurely if they were exposed to Monsanto products. The figures don’t lie.
Monsanto continually points to studies they claim confirm the safety of GMO food, and did so again in the aftermath of the latest French study. However, all of those studies did not go beyond the 90 day reporting period unlike the Caen study which tracked the health of the rats throughout their life span. It was only after four months that the tumors and organ damage suffered by the rats became evident.
Monsanto is already very much on the ropes in Europe and faces being kicked out of the European marketplace altogether if its reputation continues to be denigrated – that’s presumably why a gaggle of “experts” have been trotted out by the establishment Universities – a lot of which routinely receive huge grants from Monsanto itself – in order to desperately try and debunk the study.
Meanwhile over in the United States, Monsanto and other GMO corporations have spent a combined sum of over $19 million dollars in an attempt to shoot down Proposition 37, the California bill that merely seeks to require genetically-modified foods and food ingredients to be labeled at the retail level.
If Monsanto and other GMO producers like DuPont, Bayer, Dow, BASF, and Syngenta are so confident that their genetically-engineered products are safe – why have they spent so much money attempting to prevent the public from knowing that they are in the food supply?
As Mike Adams points out, no matter how many apologists the establishment wheels out to cover-up for the fact that GMO represents an unparalleled environmental threat to humankind – the cat is already out of the bag.
“The era of GMO deception is history. A food revolution is upon us. And if governments will not halt the mass poisoning of our world by evil corporations, I have no doubt that the People will, by themselves, eventually invoke other necessary methods of halting this great evil,” he writes.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
