Tech | October 21, 2010 | 12 comments

GMO promoters continue attacking and intimidating scientists

source: http://sciencescitoyennes.org/spip.php?article1807

Image
JanforGore
URGENT: YOUR SUPPORT NEEDED for Professor G-E Séralini and colleagues
Court case coming up in Paris, 23 November 2010

GMWatch is joining French activists in appealing for your support for Professor G-E Séralini and his research colleagues, who are based at Criigen, la Fondation Sciences Citoyennes (FSC) and ENSSER (European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility). The public interest research of Séralini and colleagues on GMOs and pesticide/glyphosate toxicity has international significance, especially in India, where it helped in achieving the moratorium for the Bt brinjal, but also in Canada, Europe and the USA.

Now, Séralini and colleagues find themselves under concerted attack from GM promoters, who have resorted to defamation and flawed logic in an attempt to discredit the scientists. Séralini and colleagues have decided that the only way forward is to go to court to defend their professional reputations and their ability to continue to do public interest research.

Please voice your support for Séralini and colleagues and for the cause of open scientific discourse by signing this on-line petition:
http://sciencescitoyennes.org/spip.php?article1807

Background about Séralini and colleagues' work

Séralini and his colleagues have undertaken reviews of data provided by Monsanto in order to justify the commercialization of three of its GM maize lines (MON 863, MON 810, NK603). The re-analyses by Professor Seralini and colleagues question the reliability of Monsanto's data to formally prove the safety of these three GM maize lines (inadequacies in methodology, lack of robustness in statistical analysis). Unlike the research performed by the company, the work of Professor Séralini and colleagues has been subject to rigorous evaluation by peers before being published in the scientific literature in 2007 and 2009.

The findings by Professor Seralini’s research team question the validity of approvals granted by the European Commission, given on the advice of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) for human and animal consumption of these three maize varieties.

Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini and his team have repeatedly been subjected to defamatory attacks extending far beyond any scientific discourse and without any scientifically supported justification or merit. Such attacks fundamentally undermine the principles of due scientific discourse and the fairness of an open society and need to be robustly repulsed once and for all.

The professor of molecular biology based at Caen University has been able to identify the person attempting to destroy his good name as a scientist: namely Professor Marc Fellous and indirectly the AFBV (French Association of Plant Biotechnology), chaired by Marc Fellous, Professor of Genetics and former president of the Biomolecular Engineering Commission (a governmental commission to assess agricultural GMOs, of which Professor Séralini was a member from 1998 to 2007). He therefore feels morally obliged to go to court to defend his team's professional reputation against threats to the livelihood of all scientists who seek funding for public interest research.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION in defence of the principles of respectful scientific criticism and the use of diverse expertise on issues as sensitive, complex and potentially irreversible as the effects of growing GM crops.

The petition condemns the approach of researchers, who use defamation and flawed/biased logic rather than credible scientific grounds, to unfairly and unjustly argue their case. The petition calls for open and transparent scientific discourse, subject to assessment by peers.

http://sciencescitoyennes.org/spip.php?article1807
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Green,   Earth and Science,   9 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Monsanto,  Truth,  Toxic,  13 more
  3.     
    |

12 comments // GMO promoters continue attacking and intimidating scientists

  • JanforGore
  • ejasun
    • +3
      ejasun  
    • Image

    • WE SUPPORT - Professor G-E Séralini and colleagues

      The Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health.

      Analysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent.

      Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, although different between the 3 GMOs.

      Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. We conclude that these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn.

      In addition, unintended direct or indirect metabolic consequences of the genetic modification cannot be excluded.

      http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm

      Great post JanforGore

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.i-sis.org.uk/defendiSeralini.php

      Defend Gilles-Eric Séralini and Transparency in GMO Risk Assessment!
      Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Peter Saunders

      Gilles-Eric Séralini, professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen in France, and president of the scientific council for independent research on genetic engineering (CRIIGEN), is among the world’s leading researchers into the risks of GMOs. He has been &an expert adviser to the French government (1998-2007) and the European Union at the World Trade Organization and the Council of Ministers on GMOs (2003, 2008), and recipient of the Order of Merit of France for his scientific career (2008). The work of his research team appears regularly in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is highly regarded within the scientific community. His critique of the dossier submitted by Monsanto’s subsidiary in India for commercial growing of ‘Bt Brinjal’ (GM egg plant) played an important part in persuading the Indian Environment Minister to impose a moratorium [1] Bt Brinjal Halted (SiS 46).

      Séralini and his colleagues recently performed a thorough re-analysis of data submitted by Monsanto to obtain commercial approval in Europe for three GM maize lines, MON 863, MON 810, NK603. They concluded that [2], “these data highlight signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn. In addition, unintended direct or indirect metabolic consequences of the genetic modification cannot be excluded.”

      Their conclusions corroborate the results of practically all studies carried out by scientists independent of the biotech industry, as well as the experience of farmers and workers in the field that ISIS has reported since 1999 (for a recent summary see [3] GM is Dangerous and Futile, SiS 40).

      These findings call into question the validity of the commercial approval granted by the European Commission and the favourable opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), long criticised for its bias in favour of the biotech industry [4] GM Food Nightmare Unfolding in the Regulatory Sham (ISIS scientific publication). Not surprisingly, the findings of Séralini and his colleagues are dismissed by Monsanto, EFSA as well as the Food Safety Authority of Australia and New Zealand (FSAANZ, also criticised for its pro-industry stance).

      However, Séralini and his colleagues are now the target of a concerted campaign to vilify and discredit him, involving not just Monsanto, EFSA and FSAANZ, but also scientific societies representing biotechnology in France: the French Association of Plant Biotechnology and the French High Counsel on Biotechnology. This seriously threatens his funding to continue research for public good and also his job.

      A large number of academics, professors and researchers have signed up to protest against the defamation and victimisation of Séralini, and to defend openness and transparency in the risk assessment of GMOs. The protest is being organised by the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER) http://www.ensser.org/. To sign up, please visit http://sciencescitoyennes.org/spip.php?article1801.

      640 scientists have signed so far. Please also circulate this message widely to your colleagues.

    • 1 year ago
  • good_stuff
    • -3
      good_stuff  

    • I can't sign a petition for these guys without know the extent of the "attacks" and "intimidation". The ones supposedly being attacked are the ones bringing the lawsuits? I thought the pro-GMO organizations were the establishment and were always sueing anybody who cast them in a negative light (i.e. oprah).

      From the sound of it, nowbody was physically attacked. If I was a scientist who conducted the initial set of trials, I would get defensive at the accusation that I didn't do it properly and am skewing the results to get more money. Wouldn't you?

      Ultimately, uninterested parties need to look at all the evidence available and make a determination of who (if anybody) is at fault. I don't know if it will get a fair shake in the current system, but I don't think a pettition will help that eitherway.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • addie340
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • Just as with climate deniers aligned with the fossil fuel industry to discredit and intimidate climate scientists, so it is with big ag and its reach across national boundaries in trying to intimidate and discredit the brave scientists out here doing the proper independent research that was never done in pushing these toxic organisms out into our environment and into our food without our knowledge or consent. It's time to push back in standing up for true scientific integrity.

    • 1 year ago
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • s_peak
  • MrMxyzptlk
  • JanforGore
more from Tech:
from the community

top videos