Finally! World’s Largest GMO Safety Study Launched
The World’s Largest GMO and Pesticide Safety study was finally launched by Factor GMO in London, UK on Tuesday. The Global GMO Free Coalition will help fund this largest GMO safety study to date – something that should have been done before GE foods were ever released into the environment.
This study, called Factor GMO, will include three important aspects of measurement to decide if GMOs are truly safe: carcinogenicity, toxicity and multi-generational outcomes. These three important ways of researching GE crops will help experts to determine if Roundup Ready GM maize, and other GM crops grown with glyphosate herbicide are truly safe for public and animal consumption.
The public is also encouraged to help fund the study and to help determine if the main herbicide (which currently funds more than 20% of Monsanto’s profits annually) should be allowed to remain on the agricultural market. Thus far, there have been solitary studies, but no wide-spread measure of the true level of glyphosate-based herbicide toxicity levels – the main chemical agriculture uses to grow much of our food.
The Global GMO Free Coalition (GGFC) also urges governments and regulatory agencies worldwide to use the precautionary principle regarding GM crops and Roundup until a more complete picture about the ramifications of their use can be determined through this study.
The study is expected to take three years to complete all the necessary toxicity tests.
If government and regulatory agencies ignore the results of this study once it is completed, it will be a clear indication that they are endangering public health, and this evidence could be used to either sue them or help to dismantle the infiltration of biotech into these agencies. Once the truth is known, it will be very hard to ignore. The evidence provided by this study (and previous studies) will be overwhelming.
Factor GMO has already raised more funds than any other GMO/pesticide safety study in history. It requires a large sum – $25 million, in total to carry out the comprehensive experiment, but it will be a drop in the bucket compared to crop losses, health care costs, and human sickness and death that might ensue without such a study.
Factor GMO has announced that it will accept funds from all sources except the biotech industry. This is the only way to keep the results from being tarnished by conflicting interests. Their fund raising campaign has already begun and will continue until April of 2015 in order to garner all funds needed.
The Global GMO Free Coalition who aims to raise $3 million before April 2015 to help fund the study. This will help significantly with the multi-generational arm needed to be certain that the study is truly comprehensive. Studying how glyphosate affects births in future generations is imperative.
Tax deductible donations can be made here. If you really want to prove, once and for all, that GMOs are toxic, then this study needs to be supported.
Free Coalition’s fiscal sponsor in the U.S., Organic Consumers Association (OCA), has enabled them to give tax deductions to U.S. funders.
Sayer Ji, Founder and Director, GreenMedInfo, said:
“In a day and age where we have either science through proclamation or published research that is merely an excreta of capital administered by multinational corporations with agendas contrary to the public good, nothing could be more important than crowd-funding studies that produce real science on the effects of agrochemicals and biotechnology whose promised benefits are not matched by objective, special interest free bias. The time is now for the world to say enough is enough and put their money where their mouth is, literally.”
Genetically engineered (GE) foods have never been properly safety tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), thanks to a 20-year-old policy that left this task up to biotech companies. Until now.
So this is all speculation and theory since the study hasn’t been done yet… sounds more like a sales pitch to get funding for it than a report about it in general. 🙁
Many studies have been done showing mammals become tumor ridden when fed with Monsanto’s GMO grains. We need to keep the information well organized and presented in such a way that the public can determine their own health risks.
I’d love to see citations to any of them… so far, all I’ve seen are the statement that they’ve been done, but none that cite any of the research or studies.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of limiting Monsanto’s reach (especially since we’ve become uninformed and unconsenting guinea pigs over the past few decades), but making statements without proof just makes the cause in general look a bit silly in the eyes of anyone who is skeptical or wants more information. :-
If it sounds too good to be true…….
Don’t let the masters of deception keep playing you for fools. These pathological liars of the biotech companies have put themselves in a position where they must be considered guilty until proven innocent. You can count on them using every trick in the book to manipulate the outcome of the study. This is nothing more than a public relations stunt to shut people up for three years so they can continue down their road of destruction while the study is being conducted. There are some key issues that are not being addressed, that are vital in order to perform a comprehensive study. First of all, the reason that there are currently no scientific studies that provide proof that GMO’s are harmful is because of one simple reason,
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ISSUE #1:
It is impossible to independently verify that GMO crops such as Monsanto Roundup Ready Soybeans or MON8110 GMO maize perform as the company claims, or that, as the company also claims, that they have no harmful side effects because the GMO companies forbid independent testing to determine if their products are safe!
Scientists are prohibited from testing a seed to explore under what conditions it flourishes or even fails. They cannot compare any characteristics of the GMO seed with any other GMO or non-GMO seeds from another company. Most alarming, they are prohibited from examining whether the genetically modified crops lead to unintended side-effects either in the environment or in animals or humans.
The only research which is permitted to be published in reputable scientific peer-reviewed journals are studies which have been pre-approved by Monsanto and the other industry GMO firms.
Monsanto, Pioneer (DuPont) and Syngenta require anyone buying their GMO seeds to sign an agreement that explicitly forbids that the seeds be used for any independent research.
Furthermore, in 1992, at the request of Monsanto, then President George H.W. Bush proclaimed that no special Government tests of safety for GMO seeds would be conducted because they were deemed by the President to be “substantially equivalent” to non-GMO seeds.
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So, unless Monsanto and the other GMO seed companies have had a change of heart recently, it will be illegal to use the seeds that are needed for the study.
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ISSUE #2:
If the results of the study reveal the truth about the harmful side-effects of GMO’s, the biotech companies will simply claim the tests to be invalid due to conflict of interest. This is a safety net that has been built in to the study by the condition that ‘Factor GMO’ will accept funds from all sources except the biotech industry. Therefore, by accepting funds from sources that oppose GMO’s and have an agenda against the biotech firms will be viewed as being one sided and in conflict.
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Additionally, Monsanto will pick apart every process in the study, as they have done in the past, until it is completely polluted with deception and non-scientific arguments in order to prevent a consensus from being achieved beyond a doubt. Ironically, studies performed by Monsanto are considered classified information and are not allowed to be scrutinized for accuracy or integrity.
It would be prudent to remain cautious about depending on this study for being able to finally provide the scientific evidence needed to force the FDA and and the other Monsanto puppets that have been elected into office, to actually serve their purpose of acting in the best interest of the citizens that they work for. History has taught us enough to prevent us from setting ourselves up only to be let down again. Remaining hopeful for a positive outcome is simply foolish. Monsanto and the gang count on the naivety and the inherent trusting nature of people to use to their advantage.