Gmo producers prohibit research on their plants

[Magda Hassan]

GMO PRODUCERS PROHIBIT RESEARCH ON THEIR PLANTS

F. William Engdahl, Global Research - One of the great mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990's in the USA and Argentina has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of GMO plants on humans or even rats. Now it has come to light the real reason. The GMO agribusiness companies like Monsanto, BASF, Pioneer, Syngenta and others prohibit independent research.

As a precondition to buy seeds, either to plant for crops or to use in research study, Monsanto and the gene giant companies must first sign an End User Agreement with the company. For the past decade, the period when the greatest proliferation of GMO seeds in agriculture has taken place, 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. 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.

In the United States a group of twenty four leading university corn insect scientists have written to the US Government Environmental Protection Agency demanding the EPA force a change to the company censorship practice. It is as if Chevrolet or Tata Motors or Fiat tried to censor comparative crash tests of their cars in Consumer Reports or a comparable consumer publication because they did not like the test results. Only this deals with the human and animal food chain. The scientists rightly argue to EPA that food safety and environment protection "depend on making plant products available to regular scientific scrutiny." We should think twice before we eat that next box of American breakfast cereal if the corn used is GMO .http://prorev.com/2009/08/gmo-producers-...ch-on.html

[Jan Klimkowski]

Which is the paramount value: independent, objective, scientific research looking at all the evidence, or corporate profits?

It's a no brainer.

And thanks to our wonderful democratic governments and their collusion with the GM industry, we will soon all have no brains.

[Ed Jewett]

As a precondition to being governed (or being a consumer) (or breathing),
we retain the right to be informed, and the right to share and discuss what we know or have found.

[Peter Lemkin]

Most of the major scientists who have experimented on GMO harm to plants and animals - and spoken out - have had their Universities 'leaned' on and they lost their jobs. The list is long and that kind of research is at the moment not funded and dangerous to one's career! This has even extended to Europe. A very famous French plant scientist was fired for what his research showed about Montsanto's main product - Round-Up.