Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods

In 1998, Arpad Pusztai, a researcher at Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, preformed
the first independent non-industry sponsored study analyzing genetically engineered food and
its effects on mammals.
The study had been undertaken to determine whether or not the spliced genes themselves could be
damaging to the mammal ingesting them. However, preliminary data from the study suggests
something even more startling.
The actual process of genetic alteration itself may cause damage to the mammalian digestive and immune systems.

Pusztai’s study found that rats fed transgenic potatoes (artificially bioengineered to include a gene from
another species) showed evidence of:

 organ damage
 thickening of the small intestine
 poor brain development

The transgenic potatoes used in the study had been genetically engineered to contain lectin, a sugar
binding protein, to make the plants pest-resistant. The adverse reactions only occurred in the group that
was fed the transgenic potatoes. The control group, fed plain potatoes mixed with lectin from the same
source, were normal.

These results indicated that the adverse reactions were not caused by the added lectin, but by the
process of genetic engineering itself. “All the presently used genetically modified material has been
created using essentially the same technology, If there really is a problem, it won?t just apply to the
potatoes, but probably to all other transgenics.

In August 1998 Pusztai appeared on the British television program The World in Action to report the
findings of his study. In an attempt to quell the resulting public furor, Rowett Institute director Philip

James (who had approved Pusztai?s TV appearance) said the research didn’t exist. He fired Pusztai,
broke up his research team, seized the data, and halted six other similar projects.
It came out later that Monsanto, a leading U.S. biotech firm, had given the Rowett Institute a $224,000
grant prior to Pusztai’s interview and subsequent firing.

Evidence emerged to support the legitimacy of Pusztai’s research. The research that James claimed
did not exist showed up during an internal audit. Later, Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal,
published a peer-reviewed paper Pusztai had co-authored supporting the research.

Prince Charles began to question the safety of genetically engineered foods on his website and
became allies with Pusztai. Charles wrote an article in the Daily Mail expressing concerns over the lack

of prerelease safety research on genetically engineered foods.

Back in 1992 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had determined that genetically engineered foods
were in most cases ?the same as or substantially similar to substances commonly found in food? and
thus are not required to undergo specific safety tests prior to entering the market.