Grid of Common Points

Grid of Common points: Safety for human consumption, Nutrition, Animal tests, Economy, Farming

World Health Organization

Safety for human consumption

p. 22 Food allergies or hypersensitivities are adverse reactions to foods triggered by the immune system. Within the different types of reactions involved, non-immunological intolerances to food and reactions involving components of the immune system need to be differentiated. The former may invoke reactions such as bloating or other unpleasant reactions, but are thought not to involve the immune system and called ‘food intolerances’.

Ludwig, K. A. 2018

Safety for human Consumption

p. 23 However, Roundup contains more than just glyphosate, it also has adjuvants, surfactants, and unidentified chemicals. Surfactants aid in breaking through the outer membrane of cells to allow the other chemicals to infiltrate the cell body. Adjuvants improve herbicide activity in the formulation and serve as cell penetrants. Although these factors change the toxicity levels of Roundup, they are not studied because they are considered inactive chemicals. Mesnage (2011) found that glyphosate-based herbicides were 250 times more toxic than the glyphosate alone when tested on human cells

Farming

p. 33 From the 34 data I have found, actual GMO crops do not largely contribute to health issues. The case studies on pollen dispersal show little reason to worry about GMO seed invasion in other farm plots. Still, there are indirect effects of GMOs on our environment. The largest impact stems from the increased use of herbicides on our farmland. This is perfectly exemplified by the study on monarch butterflies

de Santisa, B.

Farming

Very little research focused on determining immune parameters of livestock animals in GM feeding trials, and especially parameters involved in allergic reactions. Most of the studies performed in livestock focused on the assessment of nutritional parameters and performance of livestock animals. Allergenicity and Immunity toxicity testing is more often performed in rodent models

Safety for human consumption

p. 24 From this rewiew ofeach single case study (allergenicity (CS-1) horizontal-gene-transfer (CS-2); mycotoxins (CS-3); second-generation nutritionally altered crops (CS-4)) no health indicators were pointed out.

Verma, C.

Nutrition & Farming

Pg. 3 Gene technology enables higher yields in plants, resistance to pests and frost, as well as mechanical properties of fruits, etc. We can also modify physical and chemical composition in order to improve nutritional and physiological value of foods. Transgenic plants also enable production of more healthy food (more unsaturated fatty acids, transfer of proteins from legumes into wheat, increased content of essential amino acids, transfer of proteins from sunflowers into maize, etc.). Thus, dangers of heart diseases, allergies are diminished and malignancy prevented

Farming

Pg. 3 Later it was found that some Bt strains (Cry+) were highly toxic to larvae of certain insect species which are also plant pests. Bt was first sold as a spray formulation in 1938 in France for the management of European corn borer. Subsequent research has revealed that Bt carries proteinaceous crystals that cause mortality in those insects which carry receptor proteins in gut membranes that bind to Bt proteins. Other organisms that do not contain receptors to Bt proteins are not affected by the toxin. The advent of genetic transformation technology made it possible to incorporate cry genes and thus the ability to produce Bt proteins in plant cells so that target insect larvae infesting the crop plants are effectively killed. The first Bt crops viz., Bt cotton, Bt corn and Bt potato were commercialized in USA in 1996.

P. 7 Gene transfer is expected to improve those production traits in animals that are poorly inherited (low heritability rate, h2), for example number of weaned piglets per sow [51] reported that transgenic plants that produced vaccines, which animals consumed with forage, were produced. The gene for resistance enables breeding of animals resistant to diseases. Vaccine for immune castration of animals, which is painless in male animals and diminishes aggressiveness while female animals are free of negative effects of oestrus, positively affects the economically important trait carcass composition.

Animal Tests

P. 7 The very first crop submitted to the FDA’s (Food & Drug Administration) voluntary consultation process, the FlavrSavr tomato, showed evidence of toxins. Out of 20 female rats fed the GM tomato, 7 developed stomach lesions [56]. The type of stomach lesions linked to tomatoes could lead to life-endangering hemorrhage, particularly in the elderly who use aspirin to prevent blood clots