Cross posted from The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire.
This is like something from H.G. Wells’ The Food of the Gods. From the Independent of London:
Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food.
The Independent on Sunday can today reveal details of secret research carried out by Monsanto, the GM food giant, which shows that rats fed the modified corn had smaller kidneys and variations in the composition of their blood.
According to the confidential 1,139-page report, these health problems were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of the research project.
More on the jump
snip
Although Monsanto last night dismissed the abnormalities in rats as meaningless and due to chance, reflecting normal variations between rats, a senior British government source said ministers were so worried by the findings that they had called for further information.
Nine other global health organization have ruled the corn as safe. It’s been on the market since 2003. I’m sure we can trust that our Food and Drug Administration ignored the huge campaign donations made by Monsanto and other agri-businesses to this administration and judged this corn as safe based on the scientific-evidence alone. /snark.
My mother always has had a rule of thumb: don’t eat fruits or vegetables that a worm won’t touch – it either has no flavor or is poisoned.
I’d never even heard of genetically modified food until I started chatting with people from Britain. They’d start typing aboug GM foods, and my first thought would be “Huh? General Motors doesn’t make food.”. And then sadly, my second thought would be “Duh! They must mean General Mills, of course. But what’s so bad about only their food?”.
“Genetically modified” food was nowhere even in my frame of reference, and I was amazed to find out that it was a really big, controversial issue outside the US. And that we’d been eating it for years, with no discussion at all… we didn’t even know it was there. That is pretty bad.
Probably most people still haven’t a clue about it, I imagine, because there still has been no real public discussion. Nor is their discussion that I’ve seen about these big companies positioning themselves to own the means of production of food. Can’t replant your crops from one year to the next without paying a fee.
Land of the free and the guinea pigs, that’s us.
I am glad that at least some of these studies are getting into the press. There is some research around, but it is rarely printed.
Thanks for posting it here.
Hmm… we definitely need more information about the risks of GM foods and maybe a little more scepticism about claims of environmental and health dangers. I must admit the issue has alway seemed to me to be similar to nuclear power; a certain percentage of the general population, with very little scientific understanding of the problems and benefits, has only to hear the word nuclear to send them screaming and running for the hills.
One thing is clear to me: although GM food has the potential to be very beneficial in general, and especially for the third world, if the world food conglomerates insist on big profits carved from the world’s poorest people, GM will be an obscenity and not a blessing.
One thing is clear to me: although GM food has the potential to be very beneficial in general, and especially for the third world, if the world food conglomerates insist on big profits carved from the world’s poorest people, GM will be an obscenity and not a blessing.
Absolutely. There is the potential to optimize crops for subsistence farmers (although any widespread dissemination would entail potential diversity problems), but the technology is being used exclusively to create crops that require and reward capital-intensive agriculture.
The scientific conundrum is that while there is still little data available on environmental or health effects, these crops are out there cross-pollinating with non-GM strains. So by the time we know, the toothpaste will be out of the tube.
although any widespread dissemination would entail potential diversity problems
Yes and we’ve already set ourselves up for serious diversity problems from centuries of [www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/engineer/select.html][selective breeding]. It looks like one of those problems, like earth orbit crossing asteroids, with a real potential for [www.csicop.org/si/9705/asteroid.html][disastrous consequences], problems that receive very little attention, or, at least, very little action. You would think that plant [www.un.org/events/wssd/pressconf/020829conf9.htm][gene banks] and the search for potential earth impacting asteroids would have the government’s highest level of support; these are serious, real, problems, not `chicken little’ panics… but short-sightedness reigns and the collapse of our civilization, or even extinction, could be the result.
Oooops. I’ll figure this link biz out:-/
Yes, and we’ve already set ourselves up for serious diversity problems from centuries of selective breeding It looks like one of those problems, like earth orbit crossing asteroids, with a real potential for disastrous consequences, problems that receive very little attention, or, at least, very little action. You would think that plant gene banks and the search for potential earth impacting asteroids would have the government’s highest level of support; these are serious, real, problems, not `chicken little’ panics… but short-sightedness reigns and the collapse of our civilization, or even extinction, could be the result.
Sorry, everyone. I have it now and I will always <chagrin> preview before post now that I know how it works. Just, ahem, ignore the previous two posts.
Yes and we’ve already set ourselves up for serious diversity problems from centuries of selective breeding. It looks like one of those problems, like earth orbit crossing asteroids with a real potential for disastrous consequences, problems that receive very little attention, or, at least, very little action. You would think that plant gene banks and the search for potential earth impacting asteroids would have the government’s highest level of support; these are serious, real, problems, not `chicken little’ panics… but short-sightedness reigns and the collapse of our civilization, or even extinction, could be the result.