GM wheat crops in Australia, Greenpeace takes action

[Tsyal Makto]

Gotta keep this short, damn you iPhone. >.< This is just a quick response to your post, Baneful. I'll take a closer look at that study tomorrow. Everything here was written by a man with tired eyes and a pounding headache.

On GM health effects - The first two tests might not have led to long-term effects, but the others listed on the page appear to be quite on the money. There is quite a difference between tracing food material in the digestive system vs allergic effects, which are the bigger concern. I did a little bit more digging on the incident of Indian cotton workers developing allergies after exposure to bt cotton, and found this article which discusses other instances of possible negative health effects caused by GM. And yes, it has citations. He mentions the human transgene transfer study, but just look beyond it.

GEN | Magazine Articles: POINT OF VIEW: Genetically Modified Foods Unsafe? Evidence that Links GM Foods to Allergic Responses Mounts

I also ran across a study that did find liver and kidney dysfunction in mice and rats fed bt maize in in vivo studies.

Liver parameters

For one of the longest independent tests performed, a GM herbicide-tolerant soybean available on the market was used to feed mice. It caused the development of irregular hepatocyte nuclei, more nuclear pores, numerous small fibrillar centers, and abundant dense fibrillar components, indicating increased metabolic rates [17]. It was hypothesized that the herbicide residues could be responsible for that because this particular GM plant can absorb the chemicals to which it was rendered tolerant. Such chemicals may be involved in the above-mentioned pathological features. This became even clearer when Roundup residues provoked similar features in rat hepatic cells directly in vitro [18]. The reversibility observed in some instances for these parameters in vivo [19] might be explained by the heterogeneity of the herbicide residues in the feed [20]. Anyway, these are specific parameters of ultrastructural dysfunction, and the relevance is clear. The liver is reacting. The Roundup residues have been also shown to be toxic for human placental, embryonic, and umbilical cord cells [21-23]. This was also the case for hepatic human cell lines in a comparable manner, inducing nuclei and membrane changes, apoptosis and necrosis [24].

The other major GMO trait has to do with the mutated (mBt) insecticidal peptidic toxins produced by transgenes in plants. In this case, some studies with maize confirmed histopathological changes in the liver and the kidneys of rats after GM feed consumption. Such changes consist in congestion, cell nucleus border changes, and severe granular degeneration in the liver [16]. Similarly, in the MON810 studies, a significantly lower albumin/globulin ratio indicated a change in hepatic metabolism of 33% of GM-fed male rats (according to EFSA opinion on MON810 and [5]). Taken together, the results indicate potential adverse effects in hepatic metabolism. The insecticide produced by MON810 could also induce liver reactions, like many other pesticides. Of course, the mCry1Ab and other mBt (mutated Bt toxins derived from native Bacillus thuringiensis toxins) in GMOs are proteic toxins; however, these are modified at the level of their amino acid sequence by biotechnologies and introduced by artificial vectors, thus these could be considered as xenobiotics (i.e., a molecule foreign to life). The liver together with the kidneys are the major reactive organs in case of food chronic intoxication.

Kidney parameters

In the NK603 study, statistically significant strong urine ionic disturbances and kidney markers could be explained by renal leakage [5], which is well correlated with the effects of glyphosate-based herbicides (like Roundup) observed on embryonic kidney cells [23]. This does not exclude metabolic effects indirectly due to insertional mutagenesis linked to the plant transformation. Roundup adjuvants even stabilize glyphosate and allow its penetration into cells, which in turn inhibit estrogen synthesis as a side effect, cytochrome P450 aromatase inhibition [21]. This phenomenon changes the androgen/estrogen ratio and may at least, in part, explain differential impacts in both sexes.

Kidney dysfunctions are observed with mBt maize producing mutated insecticides such as in MON863. For instance, we quote the initial EFSA report: "Individual kidney weights of male rats fed with the 33% MON863 diet were statistically significantly lower compared to those of animals on control diets", "small increases in the incidences of focal inflammation and tubular regenerative changes in the kidneys of 33% MON863 males." This was confirmed by the company tests [25] and another counter analysis revealed disrupted biochemical markers typical of kidney filtration or function problems [2]. The first effects were not always but sometimes greater than the ones with non-isogenic maize (called reference lines), which contain different salts, lipids, or sugars. Moreover, both results described are different between males and females; this is quite usual in liver or kidney pesticide reactions. These facts do not exclude that such effects can be considered as treatment-related. Other studies also confirmed effects on kidneys. Tubular degeneration and not statistically significant enlargement in parietal layer of Bowman's capsules were also observed with GM maize fed rats [16].

Last but not least, a total of around 9% of parameters were disrupted in a meta-analysis (Table 2). This is twice as much as what could be obtained by chance only (generally considered as 5%). Surprisingly, 43.5% of significant different parameters were concentrated in male kidneys for all commercialized GMOs, even if only around 25% of the total parameters measured were kidney-related. If the differences had been distributed by chance in the organs, not significantly more than 25% differences would have been found in the kidney. Even if our own counter analysis is removed from the calculation, showing numerous kidney dysfunctions [2], around 32% of disturbances are still noticed in kidneys.

Study: http://www.enveurope.com/content/23/1/10

Explained in layman's terms by the IRT: http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/1340

And on the topic of misconstruing data, the GM industry can be equally as guilty of this, to advance their own agenda as well. Monsanto has already been caught doing this regarding dioxin (Agent Orange), which, as I said before, sets a nasty precedent for how they handle GMO food. Again, I ask you to watch "The World According to Monsanto" as a follow-up to Food Inc to get a better understanding of them as a company. The profit motive can lead people to do horrible things.

As put by the above study:

For instance in the latter case, it was observed that none of the industry-funded studies showed adverse effects of Bisphenol A, whereas 90% of government-funded studies showed hazards at various levels and various doses [8].

As for GM already being a large part of the food supply, the argument that there will be enough organic food to feed the world is simply the next logical extension of the idea of similar yields to conventional and GM crops. If organics perform just as well as GM and conventional in yields, then organics should be able to fill that GM sector in a world fed on organics.

And tbh I think I shot myself in the foot by linking regular articles rather than more studies (woopsie me). Here, I think I should have posted this much earlier. No, it's not from an environmentalism site, it's from UC Berkley. It's mostly about conventional vs organic, but it does a fair bit of touching on GM as well. Probably a better source, no?

Organic Farming can Feed The World!

As for Golden Rice, I'm in the boat that feels it is the wrong solution to the problem of VAD. Yes, rice is relatively low in provitamin A (what it does have is stored in the husk of the rice) but there are other non-GMO solutions, such as encouraging programs that grow supplementary foods that are naturally rich in vitamin A in these rice-based cultures, such as sweet potato, fruits, and leafy greens, all of which have had many non-GMO breakthroughs recently. In other words, following the Stein report, dietary diversification and behavioral changes.

Non-GM breakthroughs

(Yes, I know, it is a biased source, but this page is pretty much just an article index, pretty benign)

Btw, how was Food Inc?