Are GMOs Really Safe?

            We all have our self-interests, and nobody wants to do harm themselves.  If you ask a cattleman to name the best, most nutritious food, he’ll probably tell you ‘beef’; ask the same thing to a shepherd, you probably hear the word ‘lamb’.   The nutritional facts don’t come into play, they ultimately want to sell you something.  A pig farmer would never hand out scientific studies saying bacon is bad for you; you’re more likely to him croon about how his lovely grandmother made his grandfather a bacon-and-eggs breakfast everyday for 75 years and ‘gramps’ lived to be 95.  Of course, they will have their own studies, stories, and opinions; but it’s still about the bottom line.  So why would we expect no less from the big bio-tech companies, like Monsanto, when they to convince us that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are safe for humans.
       An article in 2011 in the journal Food Policy said, “In a study involving 94 articles selected through objective criteria, it was found that the existence of either financial or professional conflict of interest was associated [with] study outcomes that cast genetically modified products in a favourable light.”1  Approval of GMOs has been based solely on numerous studies provided exclusively by the companies that would benefit from their sale and manufacture.  Corporate safety studies should not be considered the most reliable sources, as seen with tobacco industry studies which cast doubt and which stirred controversy on the negative health effects of smoking, not to mention delaying governmental regulation.
       Why won’t the companies that create GMOs push for more independent studies, since they consider them to be safe? Several independent studies to be published were blocked by GMO seed companies when the results were considered “unflattering,” according to Scientific American, even though they had been approved prior by the said companies.2  Independent studies cite the problems of getting plant samples to test due to restrictive end-user agreements imposed to protect GMO companies' intellectual property rights. Cornell University's Elson Shields submitted a statement to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that stated, "as a result of restrictive access, no truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions regarding the technology".3
       The fact is that genetic engineering as a scientific discipline is still relatively new, only about 40 years old. Until the Human Genome Project in 2002, scientists believed that one gene carried the directions for making one protein (based on an antiquated one gene/one protein hypothesis from 1941).  Now scientists understand that one gene codes more than one protein and that abnormal proteins can be created.  Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie (European Institute of Chemistry and Biology) says that scientists estimate that 70% of our genes code for at least 4 proteins each.  The damage caused in the creation of genetically modified organisms could be the mutation and differentiation of 2-4% of the DNA of the organism.  These mutations could be proteins that are allergenic, carcinogenic, or toxic. However, companies creating GMOs assert that when they do it one gene will only produce the one intended protein, behaving in the “precise and controlled way” they expect. It would be more correct to say in the “precise and controlled way” their investors expect.
       But do GMOs really behave according to Monsanto's, or other biotech's, corporate rules?
Researchers at the York Laboratory in the UK in 1999 were concerned that reactions to soy had skyrocketed by 50% over the previous year.  John Graham, spokesman for the lab, said, “We believe this raises serious new questions about the safety of GM foods." The soy used in the study was mainly GM; GM soy had recently entered the UK through US imports.4 A GMO food additive caused 37 deaths and a multitude of injuries by causing an Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome (EMS) epidemic in the United States.  Mice fed genetically modified corn have showed changes in testicular cells.  Rats fed genetically modified soy have showed major changes in their blood, liver, and kidneys.5  The World Health Organization states very clearly that “all genetically modified foods should be assessed before being allowed on the market.”6
       GMOs are a failed technology that only benefits the corporations that manufacture and sale them.  These corporations have tried to repeatedly to assure us to the safety of GMOs with one hand while demanding cash with the other.  I am not so easily deceived.

1.Food Policy. 2011; 36: 197–203
2.Scientific American 301(2) 22, August 2009
3.Bruce Stutz (1 July 2010). "Wanted: GM Seeds for Study". Seed Magazine.
4 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/08/genetically-engineered-soybeans-may-cause-allergies.aspx
5 http://www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/
6 http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers/65-health-risks/1notes

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