By Evaggelos Vallianatos

14 October 2012

The engineers who inserted the DNA bacterial gene, Bt, into corn assumed corn would produce nothing but a poison for the insects feeding on it.

However, moving the Bt gene into the alien environment of corn, in addition to the insect-killing protein, the Bt gene could give birth to other proteins with unpredictable behavior and possibly toxic effects on human health and nature. 

EU Commission waters down GM regulation just as new research shows “safe” GM maize causes increased tumours, organ damage, and premature death

20 September 2012

The European Commission is pushing through a new Regulation[1] that fatally weakens the way genetically modified (GM) foods are assessed for safety, according to a new report released today by Earth Open Source.[2]

Steven Druker, a US-based public interest attorney who in the 1990s sued the US Food and Drug Administration over its release of GM foods onto world markets, has written a new book on the birth of GM in the US.

While Druker lost his case on a technicality, the lawsuit forced disclosure of FDA records that showed the agency allowed the release of inadequately tested GMOs against the warnings of its own scientists and experts that these foods were different from conventionally bred foods and could create unexpected toxic or allergenic effects.

In September 2011 a Green Member of the Dutch Parliament, Rik Grashoff, put forward a Parliamentary motion proposing a ban on the "commercial use" of Roundup outside agriculture. In the motion, Grashoff cited evidence presented in Earth Open Source's report, "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?".

This report revealed that industry's own studies carried out as long ago as the 1980s showed that glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, causes birth defects in laboratory animals.