GMO Dangers: Facts You Need to Know (Connecting the Dots: Monsanto, Bayer, WHO, FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) & Soros)
By Jonathan R. Latham, PhD
August 14, 2015 — Updated January 7th, 2019
https://nutritionstudies.org/gmo-dangers-facts-you-need-to-know/
By training, I am a plant biologist. In the early 1990s I
was busy making genetically modified plants (often called GMOs for Genetically
Modified Organisms) as part of the research that led to my PhD. Into these
plants we were putting DNA from various foreign organisms, such as viruses and
bacteria.
I wasn’t, at the outset, concerned about the possible
effects of GM plants on human health or the environment. One reason for this
lack of concern was that I was still a very young scientist, feeling my way in
the complex world of biology and of scientific research. Another reason was
that we hardly imagined that GMOs like ours would be grown or eaten. So far as
I was concerned, all GMOs were for research purposes only.
Gradually, however, it became clear that certain
companies thought differently. Some of my older colleagues shared their
skepticism with me that commercial interests were running far ahead of
scientific knowledge. I listened carefully and I didn’t disagree. Today, over
twenty years later, GMO crops, especially soybeans, corn, papaya, canola and
cotton, are commercially grown in numerous parts of the world.
Depending on which country you live in, GMOs may be
unlabeled and therefore unknowingly abundant in your diet. Processed foods are
likely to contain ingredients from GMO crops, such as corn and soy. Most crops,
however are still non-GMO, including rice, wheat, barley, oats, tomatoes,
grapes, beans, etc. For meat eaters the mode of GMO consumption is different.
There are no GMO animals used in farming (although GM salmon has been pending FDA approval since 1993);
however, animal feed, especially in factory farms, is likely to be mostly GMO
corn and GMO soybeans. In this case, the labeling issue and potential impacts
are complicated even further.
I now believe, as a much more experienced scientist, that
GMO crops still run far ahead of our understanding of their risks. In broad
outline, the reasons I believe so are quite simple. As a biologist I have
become much more appreciative of the complexity of biological organisms and
their capacity for benefits and harms, and as a scientist I have become much
more humble about the capacity of science to do more than scratch the surface
in its understanding of the deep complexity and diversity of the natural world.
To paraphrase a cliché, I more and more appreciate that as scientists we
understand less and less.
The Flawed Processes of GMO Risk Assessment
Some of my concerns with GMOs, however, are “just”
practical. I have read numerous GMO risk assessment applications. These are the
documents that governments rely on to ‘prove’ their safety. Though these
documents are quite long and quite complex, their length is misleading in that
they primarily ask trivial questions. Furthermore, the experiments described
within them are often very inadequate and sloppily executed. Scientific
controls are often missing, procedures and reagents are badly described, and the
results are often ambiguous or uninterpretable.
In consequence, the government regulators who examine the
data are effectively reliant on the word of the applicants that the research
supports whatever the applicant claims. There are other elementary scientific
flaws too; for example, applications routinely ignore or dismiss obvious red
flags such as experiments yielding unexpected outcomes.
The Dangers of GMOs
Aside from grave doubts about the quality and integrity
of risk assessments, I also have specific science-based concerns over GMOs.
These concerns are mostly particular to specific transgenes and traits.
Many GMO plants are engineered to contain their own
insecticides. These GMOs, which include maize, cotton and soybeans, are called
Bt plants. Bt plants get their name because they incorporate a transgene that
makes a protein-based toxin (sometimes called the Cry toxin) from the bacterium
Bacillus thuringiensis. Many Bt crops are “stacked,” meaning they contain a
multiplicity of these Cry toxins. Their makers believe each of these Bt toxins
is insect-specific and safe. However, there are multiple reasons to doubt both
safety and specificity. One concern is that Bacillus thuringiensis is all but
indistinguishable from the well known anthrax bacterium (Bacillus anthracis).
Another reason is that Bt insecticides share structural similarities with
ricin. Ricin is a famously dangerous plant toxin, a tiny amount of which was
used to assassinate the Bulgarian writer and defector Georgi Markov in 1978[1].
A third reason for concern is that the mode of action of Bt proteins is not
understood (Vachon et al 2012); yet, it is axiomatic in science, that effective
risk assessment requires a clear understanding of the mechanism of action of
any GMO transgene so that appropriate experiments can be devised to affirm or
refute safety. All this is doubly troubling because some Cry proteins are toxic
towards isolated human cells (Mizuki et al., 1999).
A second concern follows from GMOs being often resistant
to herbicides. This resistance is an invitation to farmers to spray large
quantities of herbicides, and many do. As research recently showed, commercial
soybeans sold today routinely contain quantities of the herbicide Roundup
(glyphosate) that its maker, Monsanto,
once described as “extreme” (Bøhn et al 2014).
Glyphosate has been in the news recently because the World Health Organisation no longer considers it a relatively harmless
chemical, but there are other herbicides applied to GMOs which are easily of
equal concern. The herbicide Glufosinate (phosphinothricin, made by Bayer) kills plants because
it inhibits the plant enzyme glutamine synthetase. This ubiquitous enzyme is found
also in fungi, bacteria and animals. Consequently, Glufosinate is toxic to most
organisms. Glufosinate, for good measure, is also a neurotoxin of mammals that
doesn’t easily break down in the environment (Lantz et al. 2014). Glufosinate
is thus a “herbicide” in name only. Even in normal agricultural its use is
hazardous.
In GMO plants the situation is worse. Glufosinate is
sprayed on the crop but degradation is blocked by the transgene, which
chemically modifies it slightly. This makes the plant resistant to the
herbicide, but when you eat Bayers’
Glufosinate-resistant GMO maize or canola, even weeks or months later,
glufosinate, though slightly modified, is probably still there (Droge et al.,
1992). Nevertheless, the implications of all this additional exposure of people
were ignored in GMO risk assessments of Glufosinate tolerant GMO crops.
A yet further reason to be concerned about GMOs is that
most of them contain a viral sequence called the cauliflower mosaic virus
(CaMV) promoter (or they contain the similar figwort mosaic virus (FMV)
promoter). Two years ago, the GMO safety agency of the European Union (EFSA)
discovered that both the CaMV promoter and the FMV promoter had wrongly been
assumed by them (for almost 20 years) not to encode any proteins. In fact, the
two promoters encode a large part of a small multifunctional viral protein that
misdirects all normal gene expression and that also turns off a key plant
defence against pathogens. EFSA tried to bury their discovery. Unfortunately
for them, we spotted their findings in an obscure scientific journal[2].
This revelation forced EFSA and other regulators to explain why they had
overlooked the probability that consumers were eating an untested viral
protein.
This list of significant scientific concerns about GMOs
is by no means exhaustive. For example, there are novel GMOs coming on the
market, such as those using double stranded RNAs(dsRNAs), that have the
potential for even greater risks (Latham and Wilson 2015).
The True Purpose of GMOs
Science is not the only grounds on which GMOs should be
judged. The commercial purpose of GMOs is not to feed the world or improve
farming. Rather, they exist to gain intellectual property (i.e. patent rights)
over seeds and plant breeding and to drive agriculture in directions that benefit agribusiness.
This drive is occurring at the expense of farmers, consumers and the natural
world. US Farmers, for example, have seen seed costs nearly quadruple and seed
choices greatly narrow since the introduction of GMOs[3].
The fight over them is thus not of narrow importance. Their use affects us all.
Nevertheless, specific scientific concerns are crucial to
the debate. I left science in large part because it seemed impossible to do
research while also providing the unvarnished public scepticism that I believed
the public, as ultimate funder and risk-taker of that science, was entitled to.
Criticism of science and technology remains very
difficult. Even though many academics benefit from tenure and a large salary,
the sceptical process in much of science is largely lacking. This is why risk
assessment of GMOs has been short-circuited and public concerns about them are
growing. Until the damaged scientific ethos is rectified, the public is correct
to doubt that GMOs should ever have been let out of any lab.
Connecting
the Dots:
George H.
Poste is and a director at the Monsanto
Company and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).
Robert J.
Stevens is a director at the Monsanto
Company and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).
George Soros is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank),
the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society and a
supporter for the Center for American
Progress.
Open Society Foundations was a funder at the Center for American Progress.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was
a funder for the Center for American
Progress.
Melody C.
Barnes was the EVP for the Center
for American Progress, the domestic policy council, director for
the Barack Obama administration and is Barack
Obama’s golf partner.
Carol M.
Browner is a senior fellow, director at the Center for American Progress, was an
administrator for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the energy czar for
the Barack Obama administration.
Barack Obama was
the president for the Barack Obama
administration and an intern
at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin LLP is the lobby firm for the Bayer HealthCare and was the lobby firm for
the Monsanto Company.
Cameron F. Kerry is
a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
John F. Kerry’s brother and a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is married to John F. Kerry and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Klaus
Kleinfeld is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank) and a director at Bayer AG.
Bayer Corporation is the North American subsidiary of Bayer AG.
Mayer Brown was
the lobby firm for the Bayer Corporation.
William M.
Daley was a partner at Mayer Brown
and the chief of staff for the Barack Obama
administration.
Robert A.
Helman is a partner at Mayer Brown and was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Vernon
E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a senior
counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP and a member of the Council
on Foreign Relations (think tank).
Jose H.
Villarreal is a director at the Center
for American Progress and a senior adviser at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is
the lobby firm for Monsanto Company.
George H.
Poste is and a director at the Monsanto
Company and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).
Robert J.
Stevens is a director at the Monsanto
Company and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).
George Soros is a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations
(think tank) and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Mark B. McClellan was
a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank) and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Paul M.
Achleitner is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank) and a supervisory board member for Bayer AG.
Klaus
Kleinfeld is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), was a supervisory board member for Bayer AG.
Bayer Corporation is a North American subsidiary of Bayer AG.
Konrad M. Weis was
the president & CEO for the Bayer
Corporation, a director at the Heinz
Endowments, is an emeritus life trustee at the Carnegie Mellon University and a trustee
emeritus at the Carnegie Museums of
Pittsburgh.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is the chair for the Heinz
Endowments, an emeritus life trustee at the Carnegie Mellon University, a trustee emeritus
at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh,
married to John F. Kerry and an
honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
John
F. Kerry is
married to Teresa Heinz Kerry,
the secretary at the U.S. Department of
State for the Barack Obama
administration and Cameron F.
Kerry’s brother.
Cameron F. Kerry is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), John F. Kerry’s brother
and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama was
an intern at Sidley Austin LLP and the president for the Barack Obama administration.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer
at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin LLP is the lobby firm for the Bayer HealthCare and
was the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company.
Faith Elizabeth
Gay was an attorney at Sidley
Austin LLP and is a board of
adviser’s member for the American
Constitution Society.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society.
George Soros is
the founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations and was married in 2013.
Ramona E. Romero was
a director at the American Constitution
Society and is the general counsel for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA).
Jim Yong Kim was
a guest at George Soros’s 2013 wedding and a director, HIV-AIDS
department for the World Health
Organization (WHO).
Resources:
Past Research
Monsanto and Bayer
CropScience in deals to share technology (Past
Research on Monsanto & Bayer)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2013/10/monsanto-and-bayer-cropscience-in-deals.html
John Kerry to Deliver
Major Address on Israel on Wednesday (Past Research
on Cameron Kerry and Sidley Austin)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2016
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2016/12/john-kerry-to-deliver-major-address-on.html
Heroin (Epidemic) (Past Research on Bayer & John Kerry)
SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2017
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2017/06/heroin-epidemic_18.html
FDA Fails to Protect
Americans from Dangerous Drugs and Unsafe Foods (Past
Research on the FDA)
SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2015
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2015/05/fda-fails-to-protect-americans-from.html
Bayer And Monsanto
Should Pay Cleanup Costs For Toxic PCB Chemicals, Says German Environmental
Group (Past Research on Bayer HealthCare &
Sidley Austin)
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2014
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2014/03/bayer-and-monsanto-should-pay-cleanup.html
Improper Food Stamp
Payments Hit $2.6 Billion (Past Research on the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA))
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2016
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2016/07/improper-food-stamp-payments-hit-26.html
World
Health Organisation: Bacon As
Bad As Asbestos, Tobacco, Plutonium (Past Research
on the World Health Organisation (WHO))
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2015/10/world-health-organisation-bacon-as-bad.html
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