Pick up a box of cereals and other packaged foods in the supermarket, and it is likely that you are looking for a GM product. The Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit organization seeking sustainable alternatives to harmful methods of production technologies of food, estimated that over 70 percent of processed foods in U.S. supermarkets contain some genetically modified ingredients - mostly corn and soybeans. But in most cases, these modified foods have received only limited testing.
For example, take the three varieties of genetically modified maize are already being sold by Monsanto that are subject to further analysis by French scientists. Two of the varieties have been genetically engineered to contain unique proteins designed to kill insects that eat them, and the third variety was modified to tolerate Roundup herbicide, Monsanto's top-selling. Foods that contain this "modification" of corn are being consumed by people around the world, but French researchers say the studies do not prove Monsanto corns are safe to eat.
Under current U.S. law, companies are not required to make public the industry studies. But in this case, due to a claim and the involvement of European governments and lawyers for Greenpeace, these studies were released for independent analysis of scientists are not paid by Monsanto.
The researchers, affiliated with the Independent Committee for Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (an independent, nonprofit dedicated to studying the impacts of genetically modified organisms), published his detailed review of studies of Monsanto in the International Journal of Science Biology (2009, 5:706-726). They concluded that the data - which claimed Monsanto maize varieties tested were safe - they do suggest potential kidney and liver problems related to the use of three modified maize varieties, as well as negative effects on the heart, adrenal glands and spleen. The results confirm a 2007 report by the same researchers in a single variety of modified maize.
An apple is an apple is an apple genetically modified?
The new report also concluded that the rat feeding studies of Monsanto were so small and so brief that it is clear that the lack of sufficient statistical power to test the varieties of maize are safe. So, why governments grant permission to farmers to grow this corn genetically modified? In 1992, the industry persuaded the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rule that their crops are "substantially equivalent" to traditional crops. This assumption - that genetically modified foods pose no risk in particular - has led to our current system of regulatory oversight weak.
According to the nonprofit Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a project designed to facilitate dialogue about the pros and cons of genetic modification, "No single statute and no single federal agency governing the regulation of agricultural biotechnology products . And compared with the battery of tests required on chemical pesticides (chronic exposure assessment, carcinogenicity, etc.), the evidentiary requirements for genetically engineered crops amount to little more than a polite suggestion.
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