I do suspect that the results are
very negative for Round up while plausibly neutral for GMO grains. Yet that is merely a conjecture that can be
sorted out through experimental rigor.
In the meantime, Monsanto knows that it is in a real fight now to the
death and it will spell the dissolution of Monsanto before it is over. It is really that serious.
To start with the results are
extremely damaging. Secondly it is
blindingly clear that the Monsanto research has been obviously been gamed in
full awareness that the later results would be bad.
No scientist is going to run a
ninety day experiment of this type without allowing the data to run either to
death or so far as to make no difference.
You do that just to be sure. You
will never cherry pick just the right interval unless you have been
specifically ordered to do so and you will certainly question those orders.
Only two cherry picked reports in
order to support a massive conversion of global agriculture is not slightly
plausible. There will be dozens of other
reports that we have not heard of.
Just as no one commits billions into
a new mine on the basis of a couple of assays, no one commits billions on the
basis of a couple of in house studies. I
think we all have a serious ‘Right to Know’!!!
Monsanto Launches Damage Control Over GMO/Cancer Study
Biotech giant attempts to discredit shocking findings
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
September 24, 2012
Biotech giant Monsanto has launched a desperate damage control effort
in the aftermath of a French study which found that rats fed on Monsanto’s
genetically-engineered corn were far more likely to suffer tumors, organ
failure and premature death.
Aside from the details of the study, a wider question remains. If
Monsanto and other GMO giants are so confident in the safety of their products
and have no qualms about them being in the food supply, why have they spent
a combined total of over $19 million dollars in an attempt to prevent
Americans from knowing that their food is genetically modified?
Monsanto has bankrolled a huge campaign fronted by lobbyists in an
effort to sink California’s Proposition 37, a bill that would simply mandate
genetically modified food and ingredients be labeled at the retail level.
If genetically-modified food is safe and the studies have proven it is
safe, why is Monsanto so desperate to keep its presence in our food hidden?
The
recent study, conducted by scientists at the University of Caen and
published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, found that 50 percent of
male and 70 percent of female rats fed on a diet containing NK603 – a
genetically modified corn produced by Monsanto – or those exposed to Monsanto’s
Roundup weedkiller – suffered tumors and multiple organ damage, causing them to
die prematurely.
Monsanto immediately went into spin mode, issuing a press release over
the weekend claiming that toxicologists and public health experts had found
“fundamental problems with the study design,” without specifically explaining
what those problems were.
Given the fact that Monsanto-funded scientists are routinely wheeled
out in public to attack the abundance of evidence confirming the link between
GMO and cancer, the reaction to the French study was unsurprising.
As
Sayer Ji explains, the two previous studies before the French inquiry, the
results of which claimed that there was no link between Monsanto’s Roundup
Ready herbicide and cancer, were both funded by Monsanto itself.
A study published in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
which exonerated Monsanto contained this glaring admission of a conflict of
interest;
“The authors have disclosed the funding source for this research. JSM
[study author] has served has a paid consultant to Monsanto Company….This
research was supported by the Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri.”
Is it really just a coincidence that the first study in recent years
not to be funded by Monsanto produces completely different results?
“There is no plausible mechanism for the results reported with
genetically modified maize and the results are inconsistent with an extensive
body of experience and scientific study,” Monsanto claimed in response to the
French study.
However, the results are only inconsistent with previous
(Monsanto-funded) studies because the French study went beyond the 90-day
period which Monsanto had previously been able to hide behind in claiming their
GMO products were safe.
As
The Grocer highlights, the French investigation “Was the first study to
look at the long-term effects of Roundup and NK603, which has been approved for
human consumption based on 90-day feeding trials. Scientists found that rats
developed mammary tumours and severe liver and kidney damages as early as four
months in males and seven in females, compared with 23 months and 14 months
respectively in a control group.”
Since tumors and other ailments were only discovered after a four month
period, this throws into serious doubt previous (Monsanto-funded) studies the
biotech giant pointed to as proving the safety of GMO because they failed to
extend beyond a 90 day period, whereas the French study looked at the effects
of GMO throughout the whole life span of the rats.
This again illustrates the fact that far from being inadequate or badly
modeled, the French study was more extensive and more complete than any
previous study – with the added bonus that it was not funded by Monsanto – it
was completely impartial.
As
we reported last week, apologists for Monsanto have jumped on the
bandwagon in an effort to discredit the findings of the French study, lying by
omission in an attempt to cast doubt on its findings.
David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge tried to question
the accuracy of the study by highlighting that “The study’s untreated control
arm comprised only 10 rats of each sex, most of which also got tumors.”
However, Spiegelhalter failed to acknowledge that it took these rats
anything up to 19 months longer to develop tumors compared to those fed on
Monsanto’s GM corn.
Having had its nose bloodied in various European countries and facing
being kicked out of the European marketplace altogether, Monsanto is in
panic mode right now.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of
Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones
Show and Infowars Nightly News.
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