Trial suggesting a GM maize strain causes cancer has attracted a torrent of abuse, but it cannot be swept under the carpet
Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini, professor of molecular biology at Caen university in France, knows how to inflame the GM
industry and its friends. For seven years he and his team have
questioned the safety standards applied to varieties of GM maize and
tried to re-analyse industry-funded studies presented to governments.
The
GM industry has traditionally reacted furiously and personally.
Séralini has been widely insulted and smeared and last year, in some
desperation, he sued Marc Fellous, president of the French Association
of Plant Biotechnology, for defamation, and won (although he was only awarded a nominal €1 in damages).
But
last week, Seralini brought the whole scientific and corporate
establishment crashing down on his head. In a peer-reviewed US journal,
Food and Chemical Toxicology, he reported the results of a €3.2m study.
Fed a diet of Monsanto's Roundup-tolerant GM maize NK603 for two years,
or exposed to Roundup over the same period, rats developed higher
levels of cancers and died earlier than controls. Séralini suggested
that the results could be explained by the endocrine-disrupting effects
of Roundup, and overexpression of the transgene in the GMO.
READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/28/study-gm-maize-cancer
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