Corporate Terrorism? Let's stop the rot!

Over two years, the rat subjects experienced significant ill-health, gross tumour development and early death, thanks to Monsanto’s GMO strains of corn and their associated herbicide Roundup. Not surprisingly, Monsanto didn’t like what the studies showed, so what did they do? Created a brand new position on the editorial board of Food and Chemical Toxicology, installed one of their ex-scientists, who promptly ordered the study unfavourable to Monsanto's interests to be retracted. 

Well rather than dousing the debate around GMOs and Roundup, the retraction has fueled the fires. Indeed, quiet outrage has followed, since there is no evidence of fraud or poor science in the much-publicised Seralini study. Fortunately Seralini is no stranger to walking where others fear to tread, is sticking by his findings and is prepared to fight the retraction in court. 

But this latest drama in the evolution of “corporate terrorism” strikes at the heart of dedicated, committed, unbiased science (yes, some is still being conducted). But unless we take a firm stand and demand the return of unbiased, impartial, non-commercial science we are doomed to ill-health and the over-riding money-making, controlling interests of massive enterprises like Monsanto and the more generalised Big Pharma. The so-called "Science Journals" should be in our sights too - with multiple recent examples of published papers being nothing more than thinly disguised advertorials for new drugs. Take a moment to sign the petition.

Don't believe everything you read

If you’re following the news and the debate surrounding GM crops, even if you’ve only been following my blog, you should be concerned enough to be buying organic and looking for “GM-free” on labels. And if you’re not, you should be! But for those who rely on the scientific journals to sift the wheat from the chaff (sorry - poor analogy) and the popular press to report the “real” story, you are likely to be led far astray.

The recent retraction of the infamous Seralini study, which linked long-term consumption of GM corn and use of Roundup to massive tumour growth in rats, published in the journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology in 2012, is a perfect case in point. The word is out that the very recent fast-tracked appointment to the editorial board of FCT of an ex-Monsanto employee, was orchestrated to ensure that this very damaging report was discredited and removed from sight. Sadly FCT is not the only academic journal to have fallen under the sway of massive commercial interests disguised as independent, not-for-profits etc. 

The good news is, all this skulduggery and heavy-handedness from powerful vested interests is impossible to hide completely. You just need to keep your eyes open, your ear to the ground and always ask questions!