Saturday, February 21, 2009

GMO and bees colony collapse disorder

This post is dedicated to hypothetical emergent connection of mysterious CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) to spreading of GMO crops (Genetically modified organisms). Recently the evidence of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) at the case of GMO corn was confirmed. I am rather convinced proponent of this connection from many following reasons, some of which weren't presented yet:
  1. The connection of GMO and food induced atopy and allergies and related problems is well known and experimentally proven in short term laboratory experiments in certain cases, too, although final confirmation in long term experiments is still missing here.

  2. The problem of CCD is relatively new, it's apparently related to some latest technology or environmental change, which has become widespread just recently. Although the other man made effects, like the global warming can play a negative role here, too, as they can increase a resistance of natural bee parasites, like Varroa destructor mites through winter period. It's not directly related to parasites specific to domestic colonies, though, as the wild bumble bees population suffers the same problem (it's just less apparent from obvious reasons) - so that the common reason must exist elsewhere.

  3. The symptoms of CCD are unspecific, they manifests like immunodeficiency syndrome, which can manifest itself by various symptoms (at the case of AIDS the reason of death is often quite harmless infection). The CCD agents in apparently hidden and nonspecific as well, as it manifest by various reasons in different locations. Whereas an instinctive reaction of bees is always the same, they tend to leave a bee-hive and escape from area contaminated.

  4. The CCD is linked to new bat "white nose syndrome" (WNS), which is probably manifestation of food allergy (long term rhinitis) as well. Many bat species are significant pollinators like bees) and they have dissappeared recently as well.


  5. The introduction of GMO into Great Britain in 1998 has caused a statistically significant step in generally increasing rate of food allergy, because GMO import was enabled in food market stepwise in legall act, i.e. not gradually in this particular case.



  6. The Cry1A / Cry1Ab proteins are always produced in mixtures in GMO, some of active proteins (Cry1B, Cry3Bb1, Cry9c, EPSPS) in GMO strands aren't completely specific to lepidopthera, they can affect a hymenoptera (i.e. the ants, beatles and bees) and other higher organisms as well and a various neglected toxicity synergies can exist here.

  7. With respect to GMO induced allergies, the active proteins Cry1A / Cry1Ab in GMO food are very similar to bacterial toxins, against which the immune systems of living organisms (including human and bees) are programmed. The Bacillus thuringiensis is very close to anthrax pathogens (Bacillus anthracis) both morphologically, both genetically, so especially high risk of coincidence in immune reactions (atopy, i.e. allergies) exists here.



  8. The correct function of immune system is based on correct distinction between healthy and pathogenic proteins. The higher number of foreign proteins is forced to distinguish, the higher risk of improper response can be expected.


    The increasing rate of food allergy is an civilization problem and it's related to increasing diversity of various components of food (proteins in particular). The first documented case is so called lactose intolerance, because the milk diet was introduced into populations rather recently. China is particularly notable as a place of poor tolerance, whereas in Mongolia and the Asian steppes horse milk is drunk regularly. Even eating of tropical fruits and ocean fish can increase an allergy levels, if we're not adopted to it (typically for inland inhabitants with traditionally low food diversity) .

  9. The low but permanent allergene concentration in food (GMO contaminated pollens at the case of bees) has a sensitization effect even for normal food components, because the correct function of biochemical pathways of adaptive immune system depends on temporary decrease of allergen concentration in reaction with specific antigen. If such decrease doesn't occur (for example because of human or bees are in permanent contact with GMO contaminated food every day), immune system continues in production of another various antigens, until their number and concentration isn't so high, they can initiate an accidental violent atopic reaction ("allergy") even in contact with proteins and various polutants, which can be considered harmless under common situation. After then the positive feedback is established under formation of permanent allergic reaction (chronical rhinitis or urticaria as an example).
An analogous problem can exist in connection to prolonged eating of meat of cloned animals, the cells of which are always genetically older, then the meat of normal young organism, so that the cummulation of prion metabolites, product of apoptosis, immunosupressive agents and mutagenic telomere changes in chromozomes may occur here. Meat of young clones correspond the meat of very old organisms with respect to their cellular metabolism, so they're less resistant to different infection, aging diseases and "Sudden Death Syndrome". As the result, higher unhealthy concentration of antibiotics, histamine and various antibodies should be expected in meat of cloned animals.

Every organism is programmed to certain life-time and food supplies during their million years evolution, the fast violation of such natural equilibrium can always have a unadversed effects to these equilibrium. The effects may appear negligible for humans, but they can lead to deadly synergies at the case of wildly living organisms (like the bees, bumblebees, house sparrows or bats), which are exposed to evolutionary pressure of life environment. These synergies can be considered as a manifestation of emergent phenomena from AWT perspective, as expressed by famous proverb: "A hundred times nothing killed the donkey".

Such reasons and connections are systematically underestimated by mainstream science, which tends to deal with apparent phenomena driven by single causual reasons and time arrow - not with holistic and parallelistic fuzzy logic based on many weak influences and various synergies interacting in hidden dimensions. The ignorance of multiparticle Aether concept is just a pronounced/condensed case of this apparent bias in scientific methodology from this perspective.

Albert Einstein: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!

116 comments:

Zephir said...

http://superstruny.aspweb.cz/images/fyzika/physorg/newscientist2.gif

This comment was censored out from discussion bellow NS article in six minutes.

http://www.newscientist.com/commenting/browse?id=mg20126944.800&page=2

We can only ask, why newly developed and patented top secret method of genetic manipulation is presented by independent journal as a "conventional-crop-breeding"?

Any ideas? For details please read related story:
http://aetherwavetheory.blogspot.com/2009/03/is-newscientist-trying-to-blame-readers.html

Zephir said...

In gradient driven reality the speed of change is crucial for adaptation of GMO in both organism, both life environment. We cannot eat toxins of food bacteria from GMO maze without deep confusion of your immune system, which was used to fight with it for many generations.

Analogously, artificially changed genes are unstable in genotype and they tend to spread into life environment by mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer in uncontrollable way a much more easily, than the genes, which were stabilized by long term evolution of species. Such volatile genes are behaving like fast growing dusty sediment, whereas slowly growing sediment are much more compact and resistant to erosion.

Zephir said...

MONSANTO Co. patents PIGS and is suing farmers for growing pigs. Last year MONSANTO claimed, it sold patents to Newsham Genetics LC - but this doesn't removes patent controversy, it just transfers it to another subject.

We aren't apparently prepared to introduction of GMO not only from technical reasons (we cannot handle consequences of GMO uncontrolled spreading in biosphere), but from legal reasons too.

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Zephir said...

Death of the Bees: GMO Crops and the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America

Zephir said...

Study demonstrates the toxicity of three GM corn varieties from Monsanto

Zephir said...

Bt Proteins – How Specific are They and What
Else Might They Do?

Zephir said...

Genetic engineering is not inorganic chemistry: what you put in is what you get. We cannot achieve expression of pure proteins by existing methods. More than 200 different cry genes have been isolated so far. The commercial corn contains whole mixture of BT toxins and small differences in gene sequence may reflect significant difference in specificity and the final designation is Cry1Aa, cry1Ab, etc.

In every case, the Bt crops released in North America have been evaluated based on the toxicity to mammals and to the environment of the natural toxins, not the product of the synthetic altered genes in the GM crops. Regulators have simply assumed that the toxins produced using the altered synthetic genes are equivalent to the natural gene toxin so long as the altered toxins contain domains for insect toxicity and they had an immunological relationship to the natural toxin. Therefore, the actual toxins in the GM crops have not been tested. This is because the cost of isolating the toxins from the GM crops was considered prohibitive.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BTTIGMC.php

There is still a lotta diletancy in GMO research - and unfortunatelly in its application, too..

Zephir said...

Scientist for Sale - Richard Doll Secretly Paid by Monsanto and others for 20 Years

Zephir said...

Can GM crops feed the hungry?

Gold rice with carotenes is indeed looking good, albeit its carotene level is still far from daily dose required - so it's rather just an optical effect, which is used for GMO propagation. But the rice and corn with built-in bacterial toxins used as a pesticides may not be so healthy at all, as they could cause allergies - not just for humans, but for the bees and bats, too:

The main problem is, GMO is just another step in trend of mass production of food like technological products of limited warranty and quality - while people remain of the same biological nature, adopted to natural life environment. In this way, farmers and companies like Monsanto just earning the moneys, which are borrowed from limited quality of food and life. We are saving some money for food, while paying doctors for curing of autoimmune syndromes (allergic disease, like asthma or multiple sclerosis) in increased rate.

Before fifty years people didn't kill insect on their fields at all - they leaved quails to eat them. In autumn, the hunted the quails, while obtaining addition source of food. The resistance of plants was kept by intensive graftage and selection by crossing - as the result every village maintained its own apple variety, for example. No need of artificial chemistry existed for liquidation of pest and the damages to forest and land stands were localized.

Zephir said...

Monsanto's release of toxicology data about its GM maize has led to claim and counter-claim about its safety

Short tests of toxicity are misleading, because they cannot reveal autoimmune response, i.e. allergization of organisms under influence of BT toxins from GMO corn. Such sensitization could be revealed just after accidental contact with another allergen, which may be not present in controlled lab tests at all.

Zephir said...

how does the body defend against diseases

Breckenridge Real Estate Broker said...

Get rid of GMOs by not buying them. Corn, Cotton, Canola and Soy are the main crops in the US that we should all buy organic.

Zephir said...

Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa, Monsanto aggressively monopolozing seed business

Zephir said...

Biologists worst fears have come true after a study has found that GMO soy has a delayed effect on fertility. When hamsters consume GMO soy for multiple generations, by the third generation they become incapable of reproducing.

Zephir said...

The paper: Environmental Risk Assessment of Transgenic Plants Using Honey Bee Larvae, produced by the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, stated:

Adult worker honey bees mainly eat pollen as nurse bees, with a peak in pollen intake at day nine after emerging. The pollen intake and, thus, amount and type of digested protein, is correlated to the developmental status of the hypopharyngeal glands (30-31).

The secretions of these glands are important components of the larval food. It is therefore likely that nurse bees that ingest PIs will be poorer producers of larval food both in terms of quantity and quality. Hence, not only will the longevity and learning ability of adult bees be reduced (17-20) affecting their performance as forager bees if they are influenced by a SBTI containing pollen or nectar source, they will probably also be suboptimal tenders of larvae as nurse bees. A crop expressing SBTI in a 1.0% concentration in pollen or nectar will, therefore, have both a direct impact on honey bee larvae through
digestive inhibition (resulting in increased development time, increased juvenile mortality, and individuals surviving to adulthood being smaller) and an indirect impact through nourishment depletion through affected nurse bees. The in vitro rearing technique presented here makes it possible to monitor individual larval development and we suggest that this should be included in an environmental risk assessment procedure before releasing transgenic plants for field planting.

Zephir said...

Healthy bees do not seem to be affected by Bt pollen, but scientist Hans-Hinrich Kaatz in Germany has found that bees infested with parasites who consume Bt pollen died at a high rate. The areas where the bees have disappeared have a lot of Bt crops being grown there.

Zephir said...

After Years of Herbicide Use, Roundup-Resistant Superweeds Are Evolving to Invade U.S. Fields

Zephir said...

A battle is quietly being waged between the industry
that produces GM seeds and scientists trying to investigate the environmental impacts of engineered crops

Zephir said...

Monsanto admits Bt cotton failed in India because of insect adaption.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Monsantos-Bt-cotton-fails-to-control-pests-in-4-Gujarat-districts/articleshow/5648716.cms

Zephir said...

First Wild Canola Plants With Modified Genes Found in United States, Scientists find new evidence of genetically modified plants in the wild

Zephir said...

Researchers have found that pollination levels of some plants have dropped by up to 50 per cent in the last two decades.

The "pollination deficit" could see a dramatic reduction in the yield from crops.

Zephir said...

What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths...

Lead author of bee study has potential conflict of interest..

Zephir said...

Examples of horizontal gene spreading and GMO

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0013529

and

http://newswire.uark.edu/Article.aspx?ID=14453

and

http://medicaldaily.com/news/20100806/955/scientists-find-new-evidence-of-genetically-modified-plants-in-the-wild.htm

and

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1882-geneticallymodified-superweeds-not-uncommon.html

and

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126964.200-alien-genes-escape-into-wild-corn.html

Zephir said...

Can we control engineered genes? The creators want to introduce “terminator” genes to make GM varieties sterile. However, there is great concern that the sterility trait itself could spread to conventional crops or to related uncultivated plant species. See banterminator.org

Zephir said...

Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters

Zephir said...

Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

Zephir said...

Monsanto continues to block independent analysis of its GM crop safety.

Zephir said...

Roundup or Roundup-Ready Crops May Be Causing Animal Miscarriages and Infertility

Zephir said...

Huber claims that the double whammy of weakened defenses and the new EM organism have contributed to “unexplained epidemics” of disease on farms — sudden death syndrome of soybean crops and Goss’ wilt on corn.

Zephir said...

A documentary aired on French television about how Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity.

Zephir said...

Ronald Reagan fired the FDA commisioner who wouldn't approve Nutrasweet, a Monsanto product. The replacement commisioner immediately approved the product and resigned to work for Monsanto.

Zephir said...

GM corn plant that makes its own insecticide — may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected.

Zephir said...

GM corn plant may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected. Instead of it, it just helped to decline of bees and bats, which developed resistance more slowly, than scientists expected...
It's the problem of the whole technology used. Not only we are forced to eat the toxic protein of soil bacteria, which our organisms were used to fight against whole millions of years of evolution - together with bees and bats pollinators, so we are getting food induced allergies by now altogether. The main problems is, these bacterial toxins are contained within whole plants - but in very low concentration. Only the vegetative ends have sufficient concentration to kill the pests. After harvest the field is full of corn stems, where the concentration of Bt-toxin remains low. And where the residual pests can train their immunity without risk. Because what it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger - it applies even to pests.
In addition, there is evidence of horizontal gene transfer. The plants with bt-toxins spread in the wild. The cross-pollinated plants have some Bt-toxin content too. But, as you may guess again, this content is there too low to kill the pests. Instead of it, the pests have another plants and environment, where they can train its resistance without risk.
So what? Now, after few years of GMO applications Monsanto got its money, but we have bats and bees decimated and pests with developed resistance to both GMO corn, both chemical Bt-based herbicides like the Thuricide. http://tinyurl.com/82dcz9q

Zephir said...

Greenpeace Germany claims, that the western bean cutworm (WBC), Striacosta albicosta, is a new
plant pest that was caused by genetically engineered corn.
So, with using of GMO we saved some money in application of chemical insecticides like the Thuricide, but now we are forced to spend another money in research of new generation of insecticides, because the application of GMO helped pests into evolution of more resistant mutations. We are actually paying the Monsanto for solution of problem, which has been caused just with its own products - this is what the "successful business model" is called. Whole industrial areas (GMO farming) are behaving like selfish memes, which are trying to cheat people in spending of their money in another areas (medical care). We are asking the cheaper food and instead of it we are forced to spend the money for this food in another seemingly unrelated areas. Or their paying is simply delayed in time.

Zephir said...

Crop pests appear to have developed resistance to an insect toxin inserted into GM corn plants As a result, these ‘superbugs’ are surviving efforts by farmers to kill them and so are damaging food crops on farms in the U.S.

The revelation is a blow to supporters of the technology and raises questions over whether the regime that approves and polices genetically modified crops is sufficiently rigorous.

Zephir said...

Cytotoxic and DNA-damaging properties of glyphosate and Roundup in human-derived buccal epithelial cells.

Zephir said...

Fungus that kills American bats doesn't affect European bats.

Bessie Wills said...

"The introduction of GMO into Great Britain in 1998 has caused a statistically significant step in generally increasing rate of food allergy, because GMO import was enabled in food market stepwise in legall act, i.e. not gradually in this particular case."

I'm totally against in GMO. There's so many health risk involved. Why can't just rely with natural process?

Zephir said...

The Autism Epidemic and Disappearing Bees: A Common Denominator?

Zephir said...

Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse.

Zephir said...

Colony Collapse Disorder and Genetically Modified Crops "The BT in the corn pollen causes an immune system response (rather like triggering a sneeze) in the bees — similar to if they had eaten the BT directly — also causes holes and porosity in the gut"

Zephir said...

Monsanto may have to repay 10 years of GM soya royalties in Brazil

Zephir said...

Our Disinterest in 'The Environment' Signals the End of Nature

Zephir said...

Superbug vs. Monsanto: Nature rebels against biotech titan

Zephir said...

Study finds tumors in rats fed on Monsanto's GM corn

Zephir said...

Many animals aren't so silly and they can recognize GMO corn and they avoid it in food. Why?
Because in reality, the contemporary genetic manipulations aren't well defined chemical reactions, which you may expect from school lab experiments. They usually produce metabolic mess and mixture of proteins, many of them are unknown in the nature. Some of them are causing allergies, but many others have no apparent effect. The animals may recognize some of them by their smell, but people aren't so sensitive about it.

Zephir said...

Scientists urge Elsevier to retract Monsanto GMO corn study

Zephir said...

New study shows feeding transgenic maize to pregnant sows does not have negative impact on the health of them or their offspring. This study took 143 days though, whereas the Seralini's study took three years.

Zephir said...

"Researchers with the European Food Safety Authority discovered variants of the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S in the most widely harvested varieties of genetically-modified crops, including Monsanto's RoundupReady Soy and Maze. According to the researchers, Podevin and du Jardin, the particular 'Gene VI' is responsible for a number of possible consequences that could affect human health, including inhibition of RNA silencing and production of proteins with known toxicity. The EFSA is endorsing 'retrospective risk assessment' of CaMV promoter and its Gene VI sequences — in an attempt to give it a clean bill of health. It is unknown if the presence of the hidden viral genes were the result of laboratory contamination or a possible recombinant product of the resultant organism. There are serious implications for the production of GMO for foodstuffs, given either possibility."

Zephir said...

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/28/wild-bees-pollinators-crop-yields]Loss of wild pollinators serious threat to crop yields[/url], study finds. Wild bees and other insects twice as effective as honeybees in producing seeds and fruit on crops

Zephir said...

Study casts doubt on insecticide link to bee declines.

Zephir said...

Mystery Malady Kills More Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms

Zephir said...

Honeybees don't appreciate the GMO corn very much

Zephir said...

Not Just the Bees: Bayer's Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too (1, 2, 3)

Zephir said...

Pesticides Shown To Damage Bee Brain

Zephir said...

Heavy use of herbicide Roundup linked to health dangers

Zephir said...

How Genetically Modified Foods Could Affect Our Health in Unexpected Ways Chinese researchers have found small pieces of rice ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood and organs of humans who eat rice. The Nanjing University-based team showed that this genetic material will bind to receptors in human liver cells and influence the uptake of cholesterol from the blood.

Zephir said...

The GMO products are spreading gradually in the USA, but their effects to the customers can be observed easily at the case, when they're allowed to arrive at market at single year due the GMO tollerant legislative. For example, the introduction of GMO into Great Britain in 1998 has caused a statistically significant step in generally increasing rate of food allergy, because GMO import was enabled in food market stepwise in legall act, i.e. not gradually in this particular case (graph). This is because the BT-toxins in GMO soya or corn are coming from soil bacteria, which our immune systems used to fight against whole history of human evolution. Now they're getting the same protein in food regularly and they're "confused" with it.
The immune system exhibits a high range of flexibility when trying to fight against unknown-yet pathogens. When the concentration of pathogen doesn't decrease fast, it syntheses another and another antigens, until the concentration of toxins in organism will not decrease. But at the case of regular GMO intake in food this mechanism simply doesn't work, so our immune systems are enforced to develop new and new antigens, until they synthesize the antigens, which will attack our own body. A some kind of allergy or autoimmune syndrome will develop as a result. I'm convinced, that the spreading of GMO is partially responsible for the sharp rise of autoimmune diseases in recent years, the syndrome of dying bees and bats (who live from GMO pollen) belongs into their consequences as well. The common mechanism of their development is simple and clear.
The effects of GMO to organism are sneaky, because they develop slowly (in similar way, like the prion disease) and the resulting allergy not always targets the proteins in original GMO contaminated food. You can get an allergy to whatever else allergens in this case. The short term studies of Monsanto cannot target these effects at all, because they don't exceed the 90 days. In lab conditions the animals tested cannot get in contact with large range of another allergens, so that the establishing of autoimmune disease may not be so apparent in these otherwise sterile conditions. Every long term study is doubted with mainstream science community, but never attempted to replicate (in similar way, like at the cold fusion findings for example). This is because most of biologists are work just with the technologies, which the Monsanto is using - so that the conflict of interests is very widespread here.

Zephir said...

Could be GMO linked to autism)? It's indeed difficult to say - but just because of it this link should be checked seriously at the peer-reviewed scientific level - i.e. not ignored. At any case, the multiple sclerosis is a typical autoimmune disease and it's link to autism has been proved recently.

Zephir said...

Bt corn cleared in Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder

Zephir said...

European Food Safety Authority: Scientific Opinion on the assessment of allergenicity of GM plants and microorganisms and derived food and feed

Zephir said...

Study finds that the mothers of children with autism are more than 21 times as likely to have specific Maternal Autoantibody Related antibodies in their systems that reacted with fetal brain proteins, or antigens, than the mothers of children who do not have autism.

Zephir said...

One of the "weirdest feuds in the history of science" just got weirder. Iconoclastic Berkeley biologist Tyrone Hayes—who galled a big corporate UC research funder by concluding its herbicide atrazine harmed frogs has lost his lab funding. Retaliation? Or are critics leaping to conclusions?

Zephir said...

IMO the aversion against GMO is too long story for being called a "panic" pejoratively and demagogicaly. This is an example, what the terminator genes can do with harvest of corn in Southern Africa - can you imagine, how famine would destroy the global economy, if such "lab accident" would happen with rice at wider scale? IMO this technology is still not reliable, neither mature, because it's not clean and safe. The genetic manipulations introduce many bacterial (=allergenic) proteins and even virus vector sequences into target plants, so that even silly pet animals avoid the GMO in their food, when they have such an option (they're more sensitive to its atypical smell, which we don't perceive).
IMO the aversion against GMO is too long story for being called a "panic" pejoratively and demagogicaly. This is an example, what the terminator genes can do with harvest of corn in Southern Africa - can you imagine, how famine would destroy the global economy, if such "lab accident" would happen with rice at wider scale? IMO this technology is still not reliable, neither mature, because it's not clean and safe. The genetic manipulations introduce many bacterial (=allergenic) proteins and even virus vector sequences into target plants, so that even silly pet animals avoid the GMO in their food, when they have such an option (they're more sensitive to its atypical smell, which we don't perceive).
The western globalist corporations apparently need some precedent, how to introduce the dependency of East Asia farmers on their seeds and terminator genes. It's actually the less or more hidden fight for monopolization of East Asia agriculture. There are many natural varieties of rice adopted well to special conditions and the pushing of one globalized variety will destroy the natural biodiversity and resistance against pests - which would indeed require additional GMO research of western companies and the vicious circle will be closed .The content of provitamine in golden rice is low and the poor people who need the provitamine cannot afford such an amount of rice anyway (not to say, that rice is not their main food source anyway). The yellow rice has an additional problem, it's color masks various fungi, which are toxic for people.

Zephir said...

Genetically modified food controversies

Zephir said...

Toxin-emitting bacteria being evaluated as a potential multiple sclerosis (MS) trigger: For the first time, variant of common soil-based bacterium, Clostridium (C.) perfringens type Bfound in a patient with MS

Zephir said...

The pigs that ate the GM diet had a higher rate of severe stomach inflammation — 32 percent of GM-fed pigs compared to 12 percent of non-GM-fed pigs. The inflammation was worse in GM-fed males compared to non-GM fed males by a factor of 4.0, and GM-fed females compared to non-GM-fed females by a factor of 2.2. As well, GM-fed pigs had uteri that were 25 percent heavier than non-GM fed pigs, the study said.

Zephir said...

Study linking GM maize to rat tumours is retracted. Publisher withdraws paper over authors' objections, citing weak evidence. Despite the  Sprague-Dawley rats used and number sampled ewxactly the same rat strain and number used in Monsanto's studies: why all of a sudden are these now inadequate? The article said it was due to the duration of the study and the age of the rats. I don't understand the whys.. But the small number and type of animals used in the study means that “no definitive conclusions can be reached”. Show me a 10yr study (run by a non-gmo company) of some folks consuming bt corn and glyphosate and I'll be convinced.

Zephir said...

Here are some responses to the original 2012 Seralini study, finding short comings in both design and statistical methods used. No attempt for actual replication this study has been done (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, VIB response, Belgian Biosafety Advisory Council report, Monsanto's response to the study, Here is a Nature article on the controversy)

Zephir said...

It's the BT-toxin in genetically modified foods which kills insects by "puncturing holes in their cells." The toxin is present in 'every kernel' of Bt-corn and survives human digestion, with a 2012 study confirming that it punctures holes in human cells as well. The GMO-related damage was linked to five different areas: Intestinal permeability, imbalanced gut bacteria, immune activation and allergic response, impaired digestion, and damage to the intestinal wall. The IRT release also indicated that glyphosate, a weed killer sold under the brand name 'Roundup' was also found to have a negative effect on intestinal bacteria. GMO crops contain high levels of the toxin at harvest.

Zephir said...

The biggest criticism from both reviews is that Séralini and his team used only ten rats of each sex in their treatment groups. That is a similar number of rats per group to that used in most previous toxicity tests of GM foods, including Missouri-based Monsanto’s own tests of NK603 maize. Such regulatory tests monitor rats for 90 days, and guidelines from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) state that ten rats of each sex per group over that time span is sufficient because the rats are relatively young. But Séralini’s study was over two years — almost a rat’s lifespan — and for tests of this duration, the OECD recommends at least 20 rats of each sex per group for chemical-toxicity studies, and at least 50 for carcinogenicity studies.
Moreover, the study used Sprague-Dawley rats, which both reviews note are prone to developing spontaneous tumours. Data provided to Nature by Harlan Laboratories, which supplied the rats in the study, show that only one-third of males, and less than one-half of females, live to 104 weeks. By comparison, its Han Wistar rats have greater than 70% survival at 104 weeks, and fewer tumours. OECD guidelines state that for two-year experiments, rats should have a survival rate of at least 50% at 104 weeks. If they do not, each treatment group should include even more animals — 65 or more of each sex.
My problem with this whole fiasco is exactly that; the methodology is being criticized, which is fair and normal for any study, but no similar studies are being done with contradictory results. Just because this study failed at being thorough doesn't mean that the opposite (of its results) is true. So in terms of rewording, forget "dis-proving" and lets say "Are there any similar long term studies which show the opposite to be be true?" or "Are there any similar long term studies which show there isn't an increase in tumor growth?"

Zephir said...

How Nature refused to re-examine the 1989 CalTech experiment

Zephir said...

Full text of 2012 Seralini paper, Some criticism that covers most things wrong with the paper, Monsanto behind Journal’s retraction of GMO rat-cancer link, French scientist Séralini threatens suit after discredited anti-GMO paper retracted

Zephir said...

European Health Levels Suddenly Collapsed After 2003 And Nobody is Sure Why, glykosate & superweeds, area of GMO in Spain by year..-prevalence of autism for childrenCorn USA

Zephir said...

Monsanto behind Journal’s retraction of GMO rat-cancer link

Zephir said...

The inclusion of genetically modified (GM) plants in the human diet has raised concerns about the possible transfer of transgenes from GM plants to intestinal microflora and enterocytes.

Zephir said...

The gene is usually inserted into the organism in the form of an artificial loop of "extrachromosomal DNA, which can replicate much more quickly than chromosomal DNA. The original genes came from chromosomal DNA, but they are inserted as a loop, and may contain other genes used as markers or triggers for the interactions or replication. What this means to me is that it would be much easier and more likely for this artificial gene to be transferred to another organism, such as a bacterium or virus, than if it were attached as part of a full chromosome. All it takes is for a bacterium to "eat" one of these engineered cells, and if so much as one of these artificial loops of DNA survives, then viola, the next generation of the bacterium has the gene too...

Zephir said...

The study published yesterday in the journal mBio found in bees a variant of the tobacco ringspot virus, an RNA virus that likely jumped from tobacco plants, to soy plants, to bees.

Zephir said...

An inconvenient truth is that monarchs were this abundant in 2010 and 2011 in the GMO croplands of southern Minnesota even though the milkweed that used to grow within the crop fields in the 1990's had been killed off back in 2006-2007: 2010: 1 2 2011: 3 4 In 2012 and 2013 the monarch population was lower (but still this abundant 5 due to a high abundance of monarch egg and caterpillar predators. The good news is the population will soon rebound to the high numbers seen in 2010 and 2011 because there is still enough milkweed to support such numbers.

Zephir said...

This documentary shows the power of Monsanto and how they treat farmers.

Zephir said...

Paper investigating the toxicity of Roundup retracted because of "inconclusive results" is discussed in latest EHP editorial: "...represents a dangerous erosion of the underpinnings of the peer-review process"

Zephir said...

Glyphosate Commercial Formulation Causes Cytotoxicity, Oxidative Effects,
and Apoptosis on Human Cells

Beneficial insects, nematodes not harmed by Bt proteins in GMO crops

Zephir said...

Compositional differences in soybeans on the market: Glyphosate accumulates in Roundup Ready GM soybeans.

Zephir said...

Major pesticides are more toxic to human cells than their declared active principles

Zephir said...

Higher levels of glyphosate found in chronically ill people: "Studying the impact of glyphosate residues on health is warranted and the global regulations for the use of glyphosate may have to be re-evaluated."

Zephir said...

Roundup found to be 125 times more toxic than glyphosate : This inconsistency between scientific fact and industrial claim may be attributed to huge economic interests, which have been found to falsify health risk assessments and delay health policy decisions.

Zephir said...

Glyphosate accumulates in Roundup Ready GM soybeans: This study rejects that GM soy is “substantially equivalent” to non-GM soybeans. The entire argument about the validity of GM crops in the US is that they have not been shown to not be substantially equivalent, and thus are exempt from any additional safety testing.

Zephir said...

The effect of metabolites and impurities of glyphosate on human erythrocytes (in vitro). Glyphosate and other ingredients in RoundUp lead to ‘slightly significant’ negative effects on red blood cells.
Glyphosate Found in Breast Milk: The levels found in the breast milk testing of 76 ug/l to 166 ug/l are 760 to 1600 times higher than the European Drinking Water Directive allows for individual pesticides.

Zephir said...

Why You Should Avoid GMO Seeds

Zephir said...

Monsanto's Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to produce a synthetic version of the insecticide Bt, has been banned in Poland following protests by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing honeybees. Poland is the first country to formally acknowledge the link between Monsanto's genetically engineered corn and the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that's been devastating bees around the world, but it's likely that Monsanto has known the danger their GMOs posed to bees all along. The biotech giant recently purchased a CCD research firm, Beeologics, that government agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, have been relying on for help unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of the bees.
Now that it's owned by Monsanto, it's very unlikely that Beeologics will investigate the links, but genetically engineered crops have been implicated in CCD for years now. For example in German study, when bees were released in a genetically engineered canola field, then fed the canola pollen to younger bees, scientists discovered the bacteria in the guts of the young bees took on the traits of the canola's modified genes. That proves that GMO DNA in pollen can be transferred to bees though their digestive system.

Zephir said...

Here are 10 scientific studies that prove GMO foods dangerous for human health. These articles are true scientific articles/reports, in renown journals and by accredited researchers.

Zephir said...

Decline in birds, not just bees, linked to neonicotinoid pesticides

Zephir said...

Researcher adds to evidence linking autism to air pollutants

Zephir said...

Biological impact of feeding rats with a genetically modified-based diet

Zephir said...

Study finds new role for proteins An example of so-called horizontal gene transfer... In
its practical consequences, the foreign bacterial or GMO proteins can induce mutations on their very own... It also provides vector, along which the prion (protein based) diseases
can spread.

Zephir said...

Despite cultivation and seed import bans of genetically modified (GM) oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), feral GM plants were found growing along railway lines and in port areas at four sites in Switzerland in 2011 and 2012. All GM plants were identified as glyphosate-resistant GM event GT73 (Roundup Ready, Monsanto).

Zephir said...

In just 7 years, a fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome has killed more than 5 million North American bats, nearly wiping out entire colonies, according to a new study.

Zephir said...

Bill Nye says science changed his anti-GMO views So science, do you say?

Zephir said...

Monsanto's Roundup herbicide probably causes cancer

Zephir said...

[url=http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/doctors-confirm-first-human-death-officially-caused-by-gmos]Doctors confirm first human death officially caused by GMOs[/url]

Zephir said...

This graph is tracking the correlation between GE Crops, Roundup applied to crops and thyroid cancer rate... IMO the rise of autism is also correlated with the rise of another autoimmune diseases due to spreading of GMO products. We are also getting growing evidence for it and the data are correlated well (1, 2, 3) Of course, the autism or MRS aren't deadly diseases, but the negative influence of GMO is already visible in population.

Zephir said...

Lobbyist claims Monsanto's Roundup is safe to drink, freaks out when offered a glass

Zephir said...

10 studies proving GMOs are harmful? Not if science matters One century long history of cold fusion dismissal teaches us, that the mainstream science was always better in plain dismissal of inconvenient experimental results, which are threatening its income, than in responsible attempts for their replication.

Zephir said...

The end of most GMO crops may be near since most crops have been specifically engineered to be compatible with glyphosate.

Zephir said...

Declines in
pollinating animals could increase global deaths yearly from non-communicable and malnutrition-related diseases by 1.42 million.

Zephir said...

Bats provide a service worth an estimated US $1bn (£649m) globally by controlling pests on corn crops, a study has suggested.

Unknown said...

your comments and posts regarding GMO's caught my attention when recently researching the "norman poppy" in regards to the generational instability of that GMO agricultural product that was an attempt to both serve as an agent for pharmaceutical precursor production of oxycodone, and a mostly unsuccessful attempt to foil narcotic production in the future, and I assume maybe have been a hopeful candidate within the ranks of corporate/CIA interests to impact regional/local poppy populations in various relevant situations/countries.

I tried finding contact email information to contact directly about a few questions I have on some related/unrelated subjects if you are interested I can get you my contact info for private communication or am more than happy to utilize this format. If not I understand.

your ideas are stimulating to say the least.

thanks for the edifi'tainment.

Zephir said...

What Is Killing America's Bees and What Does It Mean for Us?

Zephir said...

An Illusory Consensus Behind GMO Health Assessment - reviews the defamation waged against Pusztai and
Seralini

Zephir said...

[Largest-ever study reveals environmental impact of genetically modified crops](http://phys.org/news/2016-09-largest-ever-reveals-environmental-impact-genetically.html)
Usage of GMO's leads into increased the use of weed-killing herbicides as weeds become more resistant The spreading of [alergenic bacterial proteins and virus vectors](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics_AWT/search?q=GMO&restrict_sr=on) into the wild is probably the most significant problem of GMOs. Not only decline of bats and bees can be linked with it, but also [the spreading](http://www.energygrid.com/gmo/2010/03po-colonycollapse.html) of [autoimmune diseases](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease).

Zephir said...

Many GMO studies have financial conflicts of interest Who would say that?

Zephir said...

Just-Released Docs Show Monsanto 'Executives Colluding With Corrupted EPA Officials to Manipulate Scientific Data':
The damning documents were released by plaintiffs suing Monsanto in a claim that Roundup caused them to become ill with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The connection of GMO with CCD's of bees
and bats
is still waiting for their reveal, as even way more money are in stake..

Zephir said...

Brain tumours: rise in Glioblastoma Multiforme incidence in England 1995–2015 suggests an adverse environmental or lifestyle factor Mmm....cell phone use, genetically modified pesticide resistant plants, that anti-knock gas additive that was introduced in the 80’s??

Zephir said...

Hero without a cape. Pollinator bat completely full of pollen.

Zephir said...


Colony collapse disorder and the sun’s magnetic poles