Dangers of #GeneticallyEngineered Foods—a Partial List

(Footnotes refer to pages in the book Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey M. Smith.)

Industry manipulation and political collusion—not sound science—allow dangerous genetically modified (GM) foods on the market. Government employees who complained were harassed, stripped of responsibilities, or fired. Scientists were threatened. Evidence was stolen. Data was omitted or distorted. FDA scientists warned that genetically modified (GM) foods could create toxins, allergies, nutritional problems, and new diseases; their superiors, including a former attorney for Monsanto, ignored their recommendations for long-term safety tests. None are required.

There are only ten published animal feeding studies on GM foods—two are independent. One found damage to the immune system and vital organs, and a potentially pre-cancerous condition. When the scientist tried to alert the public, he lost his job and was silenced with threats of a lawsuit. Two other studies likewise showed evidence of a potentially pre-cancerous condition. And an unpublished study revealed that laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions and seven of the forty died within two weeks. The crop was approved without further tests
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Industry studies appear rigged to avoid finding problems. With genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH), for example, researchers injected cows with only one forty-seventh the normal dosage before reporting hormone residues in milk. They heated the milk 120 times longer than standard, to report that pasteurization destroys the hormone. They added cows to their study that were pregnant before treatment, to claim that rbGH didn't impede fertility. Cows that fell sick were dropped from studies altogether. Similarly, nutritional differences between GM and natural soy varieties were omitted from a published paper. Feeding studies diluted GM soy by 10 to 1, and tests on GM corn used 1,250 times the amount of a digestive enzyme recommended by international standards.

There are no tests to guarantee that GM food is not allergenic. Although recommended international testing standards can minimize that possibility, GM corn on the market today would most certainly fail those tests.

The only human feeding trial of GM food ever conducted confirmed that engineered genes transferred from a soy burger and soy milkshake to the bacteria inside the digestive tract after only one meal. The World Health Organization and the British and American Medical Associations are concerned that if the "antibiotic resistant marker genes" used in GM foods transferred to gut bacteria, it could create super-diseases-immune to antibiotics. Scientists are also worried that the "promoter" used inside GM foods may transfer to bacteria or internal organs. Promoters permanently turn genes on and might create unpredictable health effects, including the potentially pre-cancerous cell growth found in the animal feeding studies mentioned above. Although the biotech industry says that millions have been eating GM foods without ill effect, this is misleading.

• About 100 people died and 5 to 10,000 fell seriously ill from a genetically modified food supplement L-tryptophan. 
• Milk from rbGH-treated cows contains an increased amount of the hormone IGF-1, which is one of the highest risk factors associated with breast and prostate cancer.
• Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the UK, coinciding with the introduction of GM soy imports from the U.S.
• Food related illnesses in the U.S. increased substantially, corresponding to the period when Americans have been eating GM food. There is no way to confirm a connection since no one has looked for one.

Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said, "What I saw generically on the pro-biotech side was the attitude that the technology was good, and that it was almost immoral to say that it wasn't good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race… If you're against it, you're Luddites, you're stupid. That, frankly, was the side our government was on…You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view." The meticulously documented facts in the book Seeds of Deception, demonstrate how dangerous this closed-minded attitude is and how it has put an entire generation at risk.