From The Independent
Revealed: health fears over secret study into GM food
Rats fed GM corn due for sale in Britain developed abnormalities in blood and kidneys
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.
Couple of things to point out:
You do not feed a Rat a diet rich in Corn. They are opportunistic omnivores.
The Independent article makes it sound like the only difference in their diet was GM Corn and non-GM Corn but they do not quote from the article or provide a link to other sources to prove that the diet remained the same.
A question also surfaces as to whether the Rats were ones that were genetically pre-disposed to kidney and blood problems. These would be much more sensitive to any changes in diet and would be a perfect benchmark for such a test. The Independent doesn't say. Finally, they trot this old chestnut out:
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.
I blogged about this piece of junk science on November 10, 2003 in which I quoted an article at Life Sciences Network
It all began in 1997 with a piece of incredibly shoddy science. A researcher fed raw genetically modified potatoes to lab rats and notice they became sick. He passed the results on to the world's media and what followed was a frenzy with Armageddon-like declarations. On the back of this free publicity the anti-GM lobby launched their crusade.
Six months later two findings were ignored. The first was that the GM potatoes were harmless. All raw potatoes, GM or not, are toxic to rats.
The second was that an anti-GM crusade was an ideal way to arouse public fear and paranoia. Membership in anti-GM lobby groups was up and so was fund raising.
Some of the larger groups, over six years, increased their earnings from under $50 million to over $150 million US per year. Anti-GM hysteria was very profitable. These groups had vast amounts of money under their control and that meant increased power.
Emphasis mine. Unfortunately, Life Sciences Network closed their website in 2004. Anything in overwhelming concentrations is toxic. I have done a Google search for this confidential 1,139-page report from Monsanto and find a few anti-GM people (Greenpeace etc...) referring to it but nothing of the report itself. It was an addendum to the primary report which gave the corn glowing colors... New Zealand approved this corn for sale and their Food Acceptance website discounts the rat study as being inconsequential.
