Genetically Modified Corn Dangerous, Really Wants To Kill You, Study Shows

Anybody here think that delicious genetically modified food is not dangerous?  Well, I have some bad news for you.  A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences shows that three varieties of genetically modified corn created by monolithic agro-giant Monsanto actually cause organ damage.

Fantastic.  Especially considering how Monsanto is rapidly trying to monopolize the seed market with their patentable GM crops, and the government seems just fine with that idea, seeing as how the Supreme Court recently lifted a ban on GM alfalfa seeds.  So even though we have scientific evidence that genetically modified crops are dangerous, the government’s reaction seems to be “Eh, big whoop.”

How Genetically Modified Corn Is Dangerous

Ah, where to start.  Well, how about this little gem of an excerpt from the article itself: “One corn (NK 603) has been genetically engineered to tolerate the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation.” (emphasis mine)

In other words, these genetically modified crops actually contain pesticide residue embedded within them.  Seeing as how our bodies evolved to break down and digest corn, not “corn with Roundup pesiticide stuck inside of it”, that little extra tidbit of chemistry might just cause some problems.

The Study

What’s wild about this study is, the researchers actually used data from Monsanto itself.  You see, Monsanto actually took rats and fed them GM corn for 90 days to see if there were any effect.  They reported that there wasn’t anything to see here, move along please.

However, it turns out, when you run a proper statistical analysis on their data, there ARE health effects that begin to crop up (pun fully, fully intended).  I’ve said it before… statistics DO lie, if you know how to mis-report them.

There’s a number of disturbing things that come to light as you read this article.  First off, Monsanto only did a study for 90 days?  Are you kidding me?  People are going to be eating this corn for a lot longer than 90 days.  Last I checked, average life expectancy for an American is around 70, 75 YEARS.

Do you think we might just miss some stuff if we only look at effects over 90 days?  Especially since, as the authors of this study note, it takes one or two years to start noticing a lot of different disease processes beginning to take place (like cancer or immune disorders, among others).

Also, they only did this one piddily quick-o study on only one species (rats).  If we’re going to be stuffing GM crops into people’s faces for the long term, which Monsanto definitely wants to do, maybe several, longer studies using a number of different species might be in order, no?

Bah, screw all that!  There’s money to be made!

Okay, so Monsanto did a lousy study that was too short and too narrow, so it’s not surprising that they found nothing… except, when you sift through the data correctly, even with this very brief study, evidence of organ damage still comes out.

I’m not going to go into the particulars of how the study’s authors performed their statistical analysis, mostly because it’s extremely technical and tedious and would bore the hell out of you.  As one example, the authors discuss how male and female rats had significant differences in their level of liver and kidney damage, which makes sense due to gender differences in liver and kidney metabolism, but was dismissed and ignored in the original report.

The Results

So what exactly happened to the rats?  Liver and kidney damage, mostly.  This makes sense, since those two organs do the heavy lifting in detoxifying the body… and in case you were wondering, herbicides and pesticides are toxins.  The authors don’t discount the possibility that something about the mutation process of creating a genetically modified crop might also be responsible.

The effects seemed to be dose- and gender- dependent.  So there was a link between how much GM corn a rat got, and whether it was a boy or a girl.  The effects were also different for each of the three different varieties of GM corn tested.

Effects were also found in the heart, spleen, and adrenals, but not as much as the liver or kidneys.

So, to sum up, Monsanto did a poorly-designed, super-short study on only one species, fudged the statistical data so it didn’t look like anything happened, and on the basis of that, declared their genetically modified corn wan’t dangerous.  Once somebody took the time to sort the data out properly, even in a brief 90 day time span, evidence of organ damage had already started to appear.

And people wonder why I’m so vehemently against genetically modified foods.

Avoid creepy Monsanto GM corn and stay healthy!

Research article citation: http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11