Friday, March 30, 2007

FRANKENCORN


A Greenpeace funded study by scientists Gilles-Eric Séralini, Dominique Cellier and Joël Spiroux de Vendomois contradicts an earlier study in finding adverse health effects in rats fed genetically modified Monsanto corn:
A new study on the effects of GE corn variety, MON863, on rats concludes it can't be considered a "safe product". However, the same variety was given a big tick by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), our government food safety regulator, declaring it safe for humans. FSANZ had access to the test data (on which the new study was based) back in 2004 and still gave this toxic corn the okay.

Who can we trust to make the right decisions about GE food?
According to Dr. Christopher Preston, Discipline of Plant & Food Science at the University of Adelaide we certainly can't trust Greenpeace:
As there is no dose response and the differences reported by Seralini are likely due to chance, this study does not support the notion that this GM corn is hazardous to the health of rats. This is the same conclusion that the 2006 paper came to. How then could Seralini get it so wrong? This could easily be dismissed as an argument between statisticians; however, the problems are so basic and so obvious that they show scientific incompetence, at best. It also raises questions about how the paper came to be published in the first place.

What is worse is that this bad science is being used to influence the World’s media and decision makers. Greenpeace, who funded the paper, is hawking these statistical lies around. Clearly they are having influence for just last week the Minister for Agriculture in Western Australia used this as support for a moratorium on GM crops.
Gee, it's no wonder people are losing faith in science.

Update: Go here for more on misinformation being peddled by anti-GM luddites.

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