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Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods Jeffrey M. Smith See book keywords and concepts

Even when rats were fed more than 700 times the amount of the GNA lectin that the GM potato produced (in an earlier study), the impact did not approach that of the gm potatoes.6 Thus, the damage to the rats was not caused by the lectin, but apparently by "the genetic modification process itself."7 This includes disruptions in the potato genome as well as unpredicted effects from additional genetic material inserted with the lectin gene (see section 2).

Mice were fed either gm potatoes engineered to produce the Bt- toxin or natural potatoes spiked with Bt-toxin. 2. Both diets created abnormal and excessive cell growth in the lower part of their small intestine (ileum). 3. Similar damage to the human small intestine might result in incontinence or flu-like symptoms, and may be precancerous. 4. This study overturns the assumptions that Bt-toxin is destroyed during digestion and is not biologically active in mammals.

It is not clear from the study how much toxin was expressed in the gm potatoes and how much was consumed with the Bt-toxm diet. The study does, however, indicate that damage to the intestinal cells was due to the S/-toxin. The extent of the damage after just two weeks was significant enough to suggest that long-term consumption may create serious health problems in the intestines and possibly elsewhere. Some cellular changes, for example, may be precursors to cancer.

Changes in the cells (details) In both the mice fed the gm potatoes and the diet containing 5/-toxin, the mitochondria (which are sensitive to toxins) exhibited an abnormal appearance with signs of degeneration. Microscopic projections on the cell surface, called short microvilli, were also disrupted. Mice fed the 2?/-toxin diet had an abnormally high number of cells of the intestinal lining (enterocytes per villus were 151.8 in the control group compared to 197 in the 5/-toxin fed group). Of the enterocytes, 50% had multiple nuclei and were larger. In addition, the mean area (105.

And the nutritional content of two different gm potatoes from the same parent line grown in identical conditions was significantly different. Other GM potato varieties had problems with tissues119 and carbohydrate process-120 ing. Wheat: One GM wheat variety showed lesions,121 another variety had higher levels of toxicity.122 Rice: One GM rice unexpectedly produced 50% more vitamin B6.123 Another designed to produce vitamin A altered other compounds (carotenoid derivatives).124 Peas: GM pea varieties showed a fourfold increase in lectins and a doubling of trypsin inhibitor.

The gm potatoes adversely affected virtually every organ system of young rats—with most changes found after just 10 days. Their brains, livers, and testicles were generally smaller, suggesting disruption of normal growth processes due to either malabsorption of nutrients or unknown toxins. White blood cells responded to a challenge more slowly, indicating immune system damage; and organs related to the immune system, including the thymus and the spleen, also showed changes. The animals had enlarged pancreases and intestines, and partial atrophy of the liver.

The Whole Soy Story: The dark side of America's favorite health food Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN See book keywords and concepts

In 1998, Pusztai set off a furor regarding the safety of genetically modified foods when he disclosed that rats fed gm potatoes containing a lectin from a snowdrop plant suffered depressed immune systems and damage to the kidney, stomach, spleen and brain. The snowdrop lectin had been inserted into the potato because it is a naturally occurring insecticide.

Food, Inc. Mendel to Monsanto - The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest Peter Pringle See book keywords and concepts

About the same time, a researcher in Scotland claimed that feeding gm potatoes to laboratory rats had slowed their growth and damaged their immune systems. Prince Charles joined the fray, emerging from the royal greenhouse, where he was famous for talking to his plants, to encourage the protest movement's daily progress. For the next few months, the volatile mix of issues kept biotech foods in the news: organic farmers trying to avoid "contamination" from the new gene-altered crops; publicly funded scientists challenging the competence of their privately funded colleagues.

The implication was that if Pusztai's rats were harmed by eating gm potatoes, they might also be harmed by eating other foods. After he retired, Pusztai also focused on the 35S promoter as a possible culprit. The 35S had been used to switch on the lectin gene in the British experimental potato. Pusztai wondered if the problem with the rats' digestive tracts might have been the result of something the 35S did once it was inside the potato. But he did not know and, as he pointed out, there had been no experiments to find out.

Arpad Pusztai, researcher on gm potatoes, 1998 Our confidence in this technology and our enthusiasm for it has, I think, widely been seen, and understandably so, as condescension or indeed arrogance. —Robert Shapiro, chairman and CEO of Monsanto, 1999 Most people who buy vegetables have probably never heard of the cauliflower mosaic virus, a promiscuous organism found in all members of the cabbage family—including cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating Jeffrey M. Smith See book keywords and concepts

He found that rats which were fed gm potatoes suffered damaged immune systems. Their white blood cells responded much more sluggishly than those fed a non-GM diet, leaving them more vulnerable to infection and disease. Organs related to the immune system, the thymus and spleen, showed some damage as well. Compared to rats fed a non-GM control diet, some of the GM-fed rats had smaller, less developed brains, livers, and testicles. Other rats had enlarged tissues, including the pancreas and intestines. Some showed partial atrophy of the liver.

Comparisons had been made between rats fed gm potatoes, natural potatoes, and natural potatoes spiked with the same amount of pure lectin as found in the GM potato. The researchers varied the potato preparation, using raw, boiled, and baked potatoes, and varied their amounts in the diet. They also varied the total protein content of the diets and tested all these variations over both 10-day and 110-day periods. These testing protocols had all been thoroughly scrutinized and approved in advance by the government's funding office and were consistent with several published studies.

In the end only the rats that ate the gm potatoes suffered the serious negative effects. From the evidence, it was clear that the lectins were not the major cause of the health damage. Rather, there was some effect from the process of genetic engineering itself that caused the damaged organs and immune dysfunction of the adolescent rats. "We used exactly the same methods of genetic engineering as used by the food companies," says Pusztai.

The final cut included Pusztai saying that the effect of the experimental gm potatoes on rats "was slight growth retardation and an effect on the immune system. One of the genetically modified potatoes, after 110 days, made rats less responsive to immune effects." Asked if he would eat GM foods himself, he said, "If I had the choice I would certainly not eat it till I see at least comparable experimental evidence which we are producing for our genetically modified potatoes. I actually believe that this technology can be made to work for us.

Pusztai's research was deficient and claimed that the gm potatoes were not intended to be used as food. A November article in the Institute's publication by the chief executive of the Institute of Biology went even further. He alleged that Pusztai had fabricated findings, "a view he appears to have come to," exclaims Pusztai, "wholly in the absence of seeing any of my working data."7 "The Institute thought they could get away with blue murder because they knew I could not reply," says Pusztai.

According to one observer from the UK's Natural Law Party, the reason the government had commissioned the research team from the Rowett Institute "in the first place was that it was convinced that it would come up with a favorable result in relation to the safety of the gm potatoes." When Pusztai first discovered the health problems of his rats, even before his TV appearance he requested additional government funding to identify its source. But the government wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, after Pusztai's unexpected discovery, the British government ended all funding in safety testing.

Food, Inc. Mendel to Monsanto - The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest Peter Pringle See book keywords and concepts

While protesters march against "Frankenfoods" and trample on field tests of GM crops, and while the media raise the alarm about toxic gm potatoes and the possible extinction of the monarch butterfly from eating GM corn pollen, both give short shrift to the larger question: how can the promise of this technology and its life-giving products reach those most in need? The core issue is the increasing dominance of industrial capital over farming, especially in undeveloped countries.

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