“I retired 10 years ago after a long career as an agricultural scientist. My institute commissioned me to reach out to community groups and reassure them that genetically modified crops and food are safe.
There is, however, an increasing number of scientific studies - conducted mainly in Europe, Russia and several other countries - showing that food containing genetically modified grains or soybeans causes serious health problems in laboratory mice and rats.
I can't say that I was in love with my work, but I defended the side of technical progress, science and progress.
Over the past ten years, I have changed my position. I began to notice a stream of published studies from some reputable labs and scientific journals that question the safety of modified foods.
I rebut claims from biotech companies that their modified grains yield higher yields, require less pesticide use, have no environmental impact, and are safe to eat. The scientific literature is full of research findings that show modified corn and soybeans contain toxic or allergic proteins.
There are a number of scientific studies that have been carried out for biotechnology companies by universities in different countries. Most of these studies are about the quality of modified grains and of course they have shown that GMOs are safe for the environment and for human consumption.
People should be guided by scientific evidence and personal preferences in their choice of safe food, not by the emotions and opinions of others.
We must all take scientific research seriously and demand that governments support it instead of relying on research paid by biotech companies.
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No lengthy research has been done to conclusively support claims that modified corn and soybeans are safe. All we have is scientific studies in Europe and Russia showing that rats fed with modified food die prematurely. The animals showed serious health problems such as infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, gene dysregulation associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cellular signaling and protein production, as well as changes in the liver, kidneys, spleen, and gastrointestinal tract. …
These studies show that the proteins produced by modified plants are different from what they should be. Gene insertion into the genome using this technology may not damage proteins
For decades, genetic engineering has been based on a naive understanding of the genome based on the "one gene, one protein" thesis - the 70-year-old hypothesis that each gene encodes one protein. A project to decode the human genome, completed in 2003, showed that this hypothesis was wrong.
The entire genetic engineering system is based on a misconception. Now every scientist knows that any gene can produce more than one protein, and that insertion of a gene anywhere in the plant genome ultimately leads to the formation of abnormal proteins. Some of these proteins are undoubtedly allergenic or toxic.
One argument I have heard many times is that no one got sick or died after eating GM foods (trillion meals since 1996). Nobody got sick from smoking a pack of cigarettes. But in the aggregate, it will have an effect: we did not know what would happen until the wave of the cancer epidemic began. Only this time it's not about a little smoke. This is a whole nutritional system that causes concern. Therefore, corporate interests should be subordinated to the interests of society.
Thierry Vrain is a former agricultural scientist in Canada who promotes health education in genetically modified foods.
