Where I part with many of my lefty peers is GMO. I think they have the wrong end of the stick. The problem is not that they are unhealthy; they are just as healthy as non-GMO food. And many GMO foods can grow where they would not otherwise. My issue loss of genetic diversity as agriculture increasingly becomes monoculture, so a disease or pest can really wipe out everything, and concentration of agriculture in the hands of a tiny number of huge companies, not GMO per se.
It's my personal belief that the same company that makes DDT shouldn't be allowed to make food. That's just my take. There's also this:
Scientist Who Discovered GMOs Cause Tumors in Rats Wins Landmark Defamation Lawsuit in Paris
Was French Prof. Gilles-Eric Séralini correct when he discovered that scientific feeding experiments past 90 days with GMO food and rats can cause serious health problems including tumors?
The answer to that question has been debated ever since the initial publication of his study, culminating in a
republication of the study in another peer-reviewed journal that wasn’t nearly as well covered as the initial retraction was by the mainstream media.
Now, Prof. Séralini is in the news again – this time for
winning a major court victory in a libel trial that represents the second court victory for Séralini and his team in less than a month.
On November 25, the High Court in Paris indicted Marc Fallous, the former chairman of France’s Biomolecular Engineering Commission, for “forgery” and the “use of forgery.” The details of the case have not been officially released.
But according to
this article from the Séralini website, Fallous used or copied the signature of a scientist whose name was used, without his agreement, to argue that Séralini and his co-workers were wrong in their studies on Monsanto products, including GM corn.
A sentencing for Fallous is expected in June 2016.
Second Court Victory Reached
This was the second such court victory for the professor’s team, following a November 6 victory in a defamation lawsuit over an article in the French Marianne magazine which categorized the Séralini team research as “scientific fraud (
you can read more about the case here).”
What few people realize about the original Séralini study on GMOs is that it was
only retracted after a serious PR offensive from Monsanto and the Biotech industry, one that included the creation of a whole new position on the original
Food and Toxicology journal: Associate Editor for Biotechnology.
The new position was actually
filled by a former Monsanto employee who helped convince the journal’s author to retract the study.
Now more than 2 years later, these are the facts: Séralini and his team’s original study
has been republished in a different peer-reviewed journal,
Environmental Sciences Europe; they have won two key lawsuits against those who have attempted to ruin their reputations; and a recent peer-reviewed letter even asserted that Séralini and his team
may have been right after all on their discovery showing tumors in lab rats fed GMOs.
In other words, the jury is still out on GMO safety to say the very least, just as
countless independent scientists have warned, and Séralini’s study stands as yet another cause for concern with the ongoing GMO experiment. It also shows the lengths that the Biotech industry will go to in order to discredit any independent science that clashes with their own version of science.
For more on Séralini and his studies, check out the team’s website by
clicking on this link.
