Home > Kucinich enters results of secret GM study into Congressional record

Kucinich enters results of secret GM study into Congressional record

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 26 May 2005
4 comments

GMO Health USA

"Mr. Speaker, I wish to bring the following article to the attention of my colleagues. We must continue to challenge the FDA’s assumption that all genetically engineered food is safe."

From the Independent, May 22, 2005

Revealed: Health Fears Over Secret Study Into GM Food

By Geoffrey Lean

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.

The disclosures come as European countries, including Britain, prepare to vote on whether the GM-modified corn should go on sale to the public. A vote last week by the European Union failed to secure agreement over whether the product should be sold here, after Britain and nine other countries voted in favour.

However, the disclosure of the health effects on the Monsanto rats has intensified the row over whether the corn is safe to eat without further research. Doctors said the changes in the blood of the rodents could indicate that the rat’s immune system had been damaged or that a disorder such as a tumour had grown and the system was mobilising to fight it.

Dr. Vyvyan Howard, a senior lecturer on human anatomy and cell biology at Liverpool University, called for the publication of the full study, saying the summary gave "prima facie cause for concern."

Dr. Michael Antoniu, an expert in molecular genetics at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, described the findings as "very worrying from a medical point of view", adding: "I have been amazed at the number of significant differences they found [in the rat experiment]."

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.

Environmentalists will see the findings as vindication of British research seven years ago, which suggested that rats that ate GM potatoes suffered damage to their health. That research, which was roundly denounced by ministers and the British scientific establishment, was halted and Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the scientist behind the controversial findings, was forced into retirement amid a huge row over the claim.

Dr. Pusztai reported a "huge list of significant differences" between rats fed GM and conventional corn, saying the results strongly indicate that eating significant amounts of it can damage health. The new study is into a corn, codenamed MON 863, which has been modified by Monsanto to protect itself against corn rootworm, which the company describes as "one of the most pernicious pests affecting maize crops around the world."

Now, however, any decision to allow the corn to be marketed in the UK will cause widespread alarm. The full details of the rat research are included in the main report, which Monsanto refuses to release on the grounds that "it contains confidential business information which could be of commercial use to our competitors."

A Monsanto spokesman said yesterday: "If any such well-known anti-biotech critics had doubts about the credibility of these studies, they should have raised them with the regulators. After all, MON 863 isn’t new, having been approved to be as safe as conventional maize by nine other global authorities since 2003."

www.kucinich.us

publisher’s note:
We were told GM foods were safe because it had not been proven that they were not. Monsanto has now done their own secret(why was it secret?) study proving the skeptics right. Shouldn’t they have to prove something is safe FIRST before they fill up the supermarket shelves with 75% GM food?

Do you know what you are eating? Current GM foods you may be eating include anything with corn, canola, and soy. If you check your groceries you will find that most processed foods have one or more of these. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find any food that does not contain GM foods. At a time when health insurance as well as cancers and other illnesses are at an all time high, it is interesting to note that the pharmaceutical and insurance industries benefit from the harmful effects of GM foods and a sick populace in general.

Forum posts

  • Thanks for the update. I have been purchasing foods as carefully as I could, since I did not and will not trust Monsanto or other profit oriented self serving investor driven oligachy using the minds of science not to help people but to actually hurt them. How sad. I propose the follow set of departments that are held in the public trust directly accountable and paid for by US tax dollars instead of the war machine we are now paying for and boy a lot of good that seems to be doing us.

    The departments are:

    1. The department of Information Verification (stop the propaganda - attach fines and remove licensing for the that want to propagandize)
    2. The department of life support services - including WATER , FOOD, CLOTHING, MEDICAL CARE, and SHELTER - If no citizen is left BEHIND in the corporations RUSH to make a BUCK I bet I can cut down on LAW ENFORCEMENT, PRISONS, DRUG ABUSE, and WAR MACHINE.
    3. The Department of Peace and Global Integration - A department to make it the policy directing elment of foriegn policy. The DOD is the Deaprtment of Middle and Lower Class Death and TAX burden on the middle class
    4. The Department of PUblic Accountablity - Making all politicians and so called leaders that have decision making power responsible and ACCOUNTABLE with criminal, civil, tax, and career consequences for those that want to PLAY with OUR LIVES like they were nothing for their own profits or personal agendas subverting their OATH of OFFICE to represent US.
    5. The Department of Human and Social Development - A policy branch that is responsible for making sure that information, media, and material that corporation wish to put out do not have agendas that will LEAD TO AS WE HAVE TODAY the Corporationism of America - We have a FDA to test our foods, We should have a HSDA to assure we are not being fed horse pucky - which only leads to a people living in a Orwellian nightmare we have today.
    6. Direct Democractic Voting Machines - Internet based and Encrpyted to each citizens home so that NO ONE CAN TAMPER with your vote and ALL VOTES are open and verifiable on any vote local , state , or federal so COLLUSION of agendas will not occur.
    7. Repeal of Property and Income tax on the working and ALL TAXES ON ONLY CORPORATIONS for EVERYTHING.

  • In Europe we have the law that gen manipulated food have to be marked. The USA thinks this is a kind of import barrier. Which we think it is not. The gen-technology is still in an infancy state and the outcome or the combinations of all changes have never been researched, also for the sake of the money which a company would have to invest before it could be a product.

    Luckily we can grow our own food, but the majority of the consumers can not and they are therefore somewhat helpless and puzzled by terms like "organic" etc..

    Other companies using gen manipulated seeds which grow only once. This is especial mean to the farmers of the third world who are used to save of the crops for the next planting.

    Is this practiced christianity? We doubt!

    • And we have floride in our water, msg’s in our food, and tons of things illegal (such as growth hormones in beef proven to cause harm through independant lab studies) in the EU in our food in the US.

      It may have the same company label in the US as EU countries, but the ingredients are different.

  • Some cans/ears of corn give me stomach cramps, some do not. Some jugs of milk give me stomach cramps, some do not. To keep my cats from throwing up except for occassional fur balls I have to buy several different bags of cat food placed in different cup sized bowls and let them select their own food. I give them organic milk because some of the milk was making them throw up. There is such variability in the same kinds of the same brands that they often reject the same brand and flavor of food they tolerated only weeks before.

    I live in the US where GM food is not labeled. I am frustrated. I do not want to be sick. I do not want my cats or anyone else to be sick. My Senator thinks it is a good idea to convince Iraqis to accept US agricultural products. I’m wondering why he wants to continue inflicting ill health on innocent civilians. I’m thinking he should be finding ways to get existing GM foods labeled and stop the continued growing of genetically modified foods with pesticidal effects contained in their DNA so it is impossible to get rid of before eating.

    We need more responsible legislative people like Dennis Kucinich who at least try to put a stop to dangerous foods and increase our awareness of them. I suspect if genetically altered pest resistant criops were destroyed and no more grown irritable bowel syndrome would be a deminishing problem instead of a growing one.