GMO OMG Page #8

independent research

and information

on genetic engineering.

Seralini set out

over two years ago

to conduct the most thorough

toxicological test

on the health impacts of

Monsanto's Roundup Ready

NK603 GMO corn

which was approved in

the European Union

almost a decade ago and after

only a three-month study

by Monsanto itself.

Seralini's plan was to study it

over the full life of a rat

with the aim to predict how

humans might be affected

by consuming GMOs.

Beyond the GMO corn itself,

he tested the health

effects of Roundup,

the most prevalent

herbicide in the world,

found in our soil,

streams, air, rain,

and recently in human urine.

What Seralini found after

two years of detailed analysis

went beyond this own

projections and concerns.

His findings erupted

throughout Europe.

Well, I really appreciate you

taking the time.

So, I guess my

first question is,

as a scientist

and as the lead author

of this two-year study,

do you think there are

implications for human health

from GMOs?

Of course, I think there are

severe implications

for human health

due to my research.

We have demonstrated

clearly that,

in males, especially

livers and kidneys,

were reached at

the very high level.

Kidneys were also

reached in females,

but females were prone

to big mammary tumors.

The first signs

of health effects

occurred in the

fourth and fifth months,

results of three-month

studies would have never seen.

At 14 months, 10 to 30%

of treated females

developed tumors.

There were no tumors

in the control group.

At 24 months,

50 to 80% of females

had up to three

tumors per animal.

The groups treated with Roundup

showed the greatest rates

of tumors at 80%.

Pituitary glands in females

were the second most affected.

The androgen and estrogen

balance in serum was modified

by both GMO corn

and Roundup treatments.

In males, the liver,

hepatodigestive tract,

and kidneys suffered most

and estrogen levels

more than doubled in males

with the highest

Roundup treatment dose.

We've been eating GMOs

in some form in the

United States for 15 years.

So, why aren't people walking

around with big tumors

or obvious health effects

in our country?

So, what would translate

six months in a rat's life

to human years?

Two years of a rat

is an entire life.

So, as tumor arise, mostly by

the end of the first year

and within the second year,

so that means

at the end of the

first part of the life

which is around 30 to 40

and we are surprised to

see a lot of breast tumors

in women within

this part of life.

We don't know what

they are due to.

I'm not saying that

everything is due to GMO,

but I think that GMO

could contribute

to some extent to these tumors.

We have the fact that Roundup

can kill human cells

at very low levels

and even lower levels close

to the levels you find in

the river or in the tap water,

then you have hormonal effect,

hormonal imbalance

within the cells

that are necessary to form the

genital system, for instance.

Less than a day

after Seralini's study

was published in France's

top scientific journal,

the Science Media Centre

of London

put out a press release

discrediting the report

with criticisms from

eight top scientists,

all of them with strong ties

to the biotech industry.

They are well known, these

people that defend Monsanto

because they are the first one

to show in the media to say,

"Well, Seralini's

study is nothing,

and they don't want

to open the basket

in order to show

what they have done.

They can renew the tests

on their own

and show what happens,

but in the meantime,

we should request to forbid

these products.

Professor Seralini

was widely criticized

for the type of rats he used,

the Sprague-Dawley variety,

but this was the same kind of

rat Monsanto used in its studies

to prove the safety

of its GMO NK603 corn.

Their three-month study

wasn't questioned

but instead led to its

market release in the EU.

Seralini was also criticized

for not releasing

his study's raw data,

but he has offered to do

so if Monsanto will also release

its raw data.

Monsanto has refused.

The shame is that

in North America,

you don't have any

traceability of the food,

so you don't know

really who has eaten what.

Everybody is eating

contaminating levels

of these products.

Ninety-eight percent of

agricultural edible GMOs

are just made in the countries

where there is no labeling.

So, the first thing

is to obtain labels,

but there is another

simple thing

that doesn't cost one dollar

but that will change the world.

You request by the law

the transparency

on the blood analysis on rats

that have allowed

the authorization

the market's release of GMOs

and then we will

really go in another world

in the real 21 st century,

I hope.

There may be legitimate

criticisms of Seralini's study,

the number of rats

and the kind used,

but shouldn't his discoveries

give us pause

and more reason for

further research?

The tumors, liver

and kidney damage,

were far higher in rats eating

GMO corn and Roundup

than they were in

the control group.

That alone is frightening.

Shouldn't we verify his study

before blindly dismissing him

and feeding our children GMOs.

It would cost these multibillion

dollar companies almost nothing

to fund independent

transparent studies

to test the effects of the

consumption of GMOs

for all to see,

but they won't do it.

Neither will our own government.

What if Seralini is right?

Are we willing to risk

dismissing him?

One of the reasons

I don't like GMOs

and I have a problem with

these biotech companies,

they say to the farmer

you can't save the seeds

at the end of the year.

What if they came in here

and told you,

"You can't save these

seeds because we own them.

You have to come

buy them from us."

I would not like that.

Why?

Because I want to save seeds.

If nobody buys them, then the

company will just give up

and not do it anymore,

not give food to those stores,

and then, there won't be

any of that food anymore.

That's right.

Finn's love for seeds

isn't going to instantly solve

the onslaught of GMOs by

giant chemical companies,

but it's a starting place

because, ultimately, it's

not about being against GMOs

or against big industrial

agriculture and chemicals.

It's about being for what

is good and healthy

and right for us in the planet.

If we do that, the bad stuff

won't have a place.

We are just now learning

what Sir Albert Howard

said so long ago

that the whole problem

of health and soil,

plants, animals, and humanity

is one great subject

and after 15 years of silence

in this country,

we are finally beginning

to wake up

and join with millions of others

in a food movement

that has become a great

awakening around the world.

Change of that system

is possible,

but there won't be space

in that system

for certain industries anymore.

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