Did the Food Standards Agency really try to look at the evidence for health effects of organic food when it commissioned a review?

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) recently commissioned the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to carry out a systematic review of the published science comparing “putative health effects of organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs” over the last 50 years. Only studies involving the nutritional content of food which had been grown under defined organic regimes, and tested for a clear direct relevance to human health were included.

It concluded that “because of the limited and highly variable data available, and concerns over the reliability of some reported findings, there is currently no evidence of a health benefit from consuming organic compared to conventionally produced foodstuffs.” This conclusion was immediately sensationalised by the media into a headline which announced “Organic food is no healthier, says official study”.

The reasons for the conclusion (the actual one, not the one suggested by the press) are that the few studies available are inadequate in scope, design and execution. They don't demonstrate much about health effects of organic food, but they do demonstrate that we don't seem to know how to measure health effects of any food....

Continue reading this article on the GM-free Scotland website.

French scientists reveal more problems with Roundup herbicide

French scientists have revealed that Monsanto's prize herbicide, Roundup, may not be anything like as safe as previously supposed.

In one study, human liver cells, a recognised model for studies of toxic effects, were exposed to four different Roundup formulations and to their active weed-killing ingredient, glyphosate. The results did not support the “regulatory agencies around the world” who concluded that “glyphosate herbicides pose no unreasonable risk to human health” (Monsanto 2005). Endocrine disruption was seen after exposure to one formulation of Roundup at a concentration as low as 0.5 ppm (parts per million). At increasing concentrations of the herbicides, DNA damage was observed at 5 ppm and cytotoxic effects were seen at 10 ppm. The maximum allowable residue level of Roundup in animal feed is 400 ppm. The study suggests that, if a safety factor of x100 below the lowest harmful dose is applied, the allowable residue level in human food should be 100,000 times lower than is currently the case.

Other studies by the French team have found disruption and death of human placental, umbilical and embryonic cells after exposure to Roundup. Elsewhere, scientists have observed the herbicide to cause impaired liver-cell respiration and chromosome aberrations...

Continue reading this article on the GM-free Scotland website.

The dangers of nutritionally enhanced maize

Monsanto Europe has withdrawn two applications to cultivate and market “second generation”, nutritionally altered GM maize for food and feed, originally lodged in 2005.

According to the company, the reason was the cost of the supplemental safety tests requested by the European Union which “can no longer be justified” and “the reduced commercial interest in this product.”

The change of course has happened without any mainstream press coverage, nor mention on the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) website. It has only emerged seven months after the event, when information on the applications was released under Freedom of Information legislation,. In the meantime, all data submitted in the application have been returned to Monsanto at its express request. GM Free Cymru describes the whole episode as “a conspiracy of silence involving both the applicants and the regulators”: it appears that, rather than accede to a request for additional research and safety data, or independent scrutiny of its methods and analyses, Monsanto chose to dive for cover, dossier in hand...

Continue reading this article on the GM-free Scotland website.

Countries around the world rejecting GM crops and food

Despite what the biotech industry might keep suggesting, Europe isn't the only place in the world digging in its heels against GM crops.

In Australia, where GM canola (oilseed rape) has finally edged its way into commercial production, two major canola supply companies will not be buying the GM version. Their domestic customers “would prefer not to have it” and they are aware of “the market sensibilities” of major customers in Europe and Japan.

With no labelling laws in place for GM, and polls showing 90% of Australian consumers want to know exactly what's in their food, 180 chefs there have signed a GM Free Chefs' Charter opposed to serving GM food in their restaurants...

Continue reading this article on the GM-free Scotland website.

An illusion called consumer choice

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) insists it is interested in only two things about GM food: safety and consumer choice. It is bound to defer to the EU on safety issues, but on choice it's view is “ultimately it is up to each of us to decide what we want to eat.”

Look around your supermarket and ask yourself how true is the FSA's position? ...

Read the full article on the GM-free Scotland website.

Ireland goes GM-free

The Irish Government has finally taken the GM bull by the horns. It has made a clear decision to “Declare the Republic of Ireland a GM-Free Zone”. The agreed policy specifies that the Government will place a ban on the cultivation of all GM crops, and to introduce a voluntary 'GM-free' logo for food labels and advertising. The logo can be applied, not only to food, but to meat, fish and dairy produce from animals fed a non-GM diet...

Continue reading this article on the GM-free Scotland website.

The day of the Triffid flax

Triffid genes have been found contaminating imported flax in Europe, where they risk contaminating cereal, bakery goods, bread and omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

On September 8, 2009, the EU issued a Rapid Action Alert closely followed by four others when a German food processing company detected GM genes in its products. Contaminated shipments may have been distributed to 10 EU countries and 28 countries world-wide.

Triffid flax is not legal for food use anywhere, including its country of origin, Canada. After what was poised to be a very good year for Canadian flax farmers, sales of the seed have collapsed, causing serious financial hardship...

Continue reading this article on the GM-free Scotland website.