Can You Trust Studies On GM Foods?
(BeWellBuzz) Is corporate science a big cover up to prevent the public from knowing GM foods may be unsafe? Should we trust the studies conducted or funded, directly or indirectly, by the biotech industry? The answer is NO. Read on to know why.
Science should be unbiased, but this doesn’t happen all the time. As in the case of GM foods so far, the scientific research is doctored by big companies. Whenever an independent voice is raised that points to something which can hurt the interests of the big corporations, an effort is made to quickly clamp down on the dissenting voice. In most cases, history shows, the rich and the powerful win.
Corporate science is real, and it is ugly. We should be wary of it and ensure that we don’t compromise on our commitment to find the truth amidst the din of voices created deliberately by the biotech companies.
Corporate science, so far, has shown certain peculiar attributes:
- Prevent independent, unbiased scientists from performing studies that have the potential to hurt their interests
- Hide relevant information from the public
- Discredit any new report that is not in their favor through a systematic, calculating, and persistent propaganda
- Discredit scientists who say what biotech companies don’t want the public to hear
- State what is untrue
In this article, we will dissect the way big biotech companies function and reveal the real truth.
- Prevent new studies from being conducted
Do you recall reading any study about GM foods when they were first launched in 1995? If you don’t, it is not because not of failing memory, but because no studies were conducted before the launch of GM foods.
You may think studies were not conducted because scientists at the time didn’t think they were necessary. Wrong again. Scientists worldwide, including FDA scientists, recommended that these foods not be launched until they have been thoroughly studied. The opinion of these scientists was inexplicably ignored. Worse, the fact that some scientists recommended the study of GM foods before their launch was kept hidden from the public.
Scientists demanded that GM foods be studied for:
- Toxicity
- Allergenicity
- Long-term effect on the environment
- Long-term effect on the health of humans
- Any decrease in their nutritional value
None of the above factors were studied before GM foods were launched. Why did this happen? Why did the regulating bodies, such as the FDA, ignore the recommendations of scientists? Why were studies not conducted on GM foods before they were launched?
With the authorities and big corporations not being forthcoming about the truth, we can only make logical inferences. And logic says that studies were not done because their findings could have negatively affected biotech companies and even stalled the launch of GM foods.
- State what is not true
Biotech companies had stated that transgenic materials are limited only to those fields in which transgenic crops are grown. That is, they don’t spread to other fields.
Researchers found this information to be incorrect. While carrying out an experiment in Mexico, a major producer of corn and a country where the growing of transgenic crops was illegal at the time, a prominent scientist found transgenic corn was very much present in Mexico.
Transgenic corn was found in Mexican fields that were almost 1000 miles away from the nearest legal transgenic corn farms in the U.S. This chance finding showed clearly that transgenic materials were not limited to only those areas where transgenic foods were grown.
- Discredit the disturbing findings
The above finding was obviously discerning for biotech companies, who, until then, had said they had things under control and that transgenic materials do not spread.
The results of this study were to be published in a leading magazine. The biotech company in question started an aggressive propaganda to discredit the report and was eventually successful in preventing further publication of this report.
- Discredit the scientists who don’t agree with them
Prof. Arpad Pustazi, a biochemist and a leading expert on feeding studies, was suspended for life in 1999 after he made his findings public in a TV interview. Pustazi didn’t mince words when he was asked about his opinion on the launch of GM foods, and had stated, “It is very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs.”
Pustazi, who at the time was supervising a study on the effect of GM foods on mice, had found serious abnormalities in mice that were fed genetically-modified potatoes.
The findings of independent studies have been consistent so far
The results of almost all independent animal studies that have been done so far have been consistent. It has been repeatedly found that mice that were fed GM foods had abnormalities in growth, fertility, and internal organ development in comparison to animals that were fed non-GM foods.
To conclude:
Corporate science is dangerous as it is does not tell us the truth. Worse, it prevents others from speaking out, and when they do, the biotech companies try to discredit both the report and the scientist.
It will be a while before we know the complete truth about GM foods. However, at this time, we know that no large-scale studies were carried out before their launch and after their launch. Also, most independent studies done on this subject say the same thing: that GM foods are not safe for us.
