Nutrition and health: the GM and
organic debate
Fran Murrell, MADGE Australia Inc.
• Is there a difference between GM food and
organic produce?
• Is this a battle between scientists in white
coats and manure spreading romantics?
• Can either food system really cool the
climate, feed the world and create wellbeing?
Both are the tip of the iceberg for
different farming systems
• GM is an intensification of the current industrial
farming system: monoculture, patented seeds,
chemical pesticides and fertilizers
• Organic is a system of farming that uses
“ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles
adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of
inputs with adverse effects” . Overlaps with
agroecology, permaculture and holistic
management
•
http://www.ifoam.org/en/organic-landmarks/definition-organic-agriculture
CSIRO definition of GM
• “Genetic modification is the use of modern
biotechnology techniques to change the
genes of an organism, such as a plant or
animal.”
•
http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Food-and-Agriculture/WhatIsGM.aspx
• 2 main traits: Herbicide tolerance (HT) and
Insect Resistance (IR).
• Gene silencing being developed.
Which crops are GM?
• Main crops: soy, corn, canola, sugarbeet and
cotton. Alfalfa.
• Used for animal feed, biofuels or ingredients in
processed food.
• Largest trait is HT- 59% of GM crops in the US HT
in 2011 http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/pocketk/10/default.asp
– 93% of soy HT in US in 2013
– 90% of corn in US GM. 71% stacked (HT+IR)
– 90% of cotton in US GM. 67% stacked (HT+IR)
What herbicides are used on GM ht
crops?
• Main herbicides are Roundup (glyphosate)
and glufosinate
• New GM crops developed tolerant to more
herbicides eg 2,4-D and Dicamba
• Dow has developed a GM soy tolerant to 2,4D, glyphosate and glufosinate. This has been
approved for us to eat by FSANZ in 2013
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/code/applications/Pages/a1073.aspx
What is Insect Resistance?
• Bacillus thuringiensis (or Bt)engineered into
every cell of the plant to kill certain insects
that eat it
• This cannot be washed off.
• Soil bt used in organic sprays but is it the same
as bt in GM plants?
Organic and Bio-Dynamic produce –
National Standard AS6000
• Requires a management and biodiversity plan.
This used rather than ‘substances’ to deal with
pests and diseases.
• Rotation, appropriate plant/animal selection,
mixed cropping, green and animal manure,
plant so create place for natural enemy of
pests. Health of soil and water fundamental.
• http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/126261/nationalstandard.pdf
• NO: GM, irradiation, nanotechnology,
pesticides from synthetic chemicals, synthetic
fertlizers,routine use of anti-biotics or growth
hormones
• Audit system
• In Australia the OFA is the peak body. 7
different certifying bodies in Australia
• Internationally recognized system
• Is this a battle between scientists in white
coats and manure spreading romantics?
Stanford study 2012
http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1355685
• Looked at 237 studies out of 1000’s
• Compared nutrient and contamination
(pesticide, bacterial, fungal) levels of organic
and conventional
• No consistent difference seen in vitamin
content except higher levels of phosphorus in
organic
• http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/september/organic.html
• No difference in protein or fat content in milk
but organic milk in some studies had
significantly higher levels of Omega 3 fatty
acids
• Organic food had 30% lower risk of pesticide
contamination.
• Pesticide levels of all foods within allowable
safety limits
• Children eating organic had lower levels of
pesticides in urine. Health effects of this not
known
• Less exposure to anti-biotic resistant bacteria in
organic pork and chicken. Health effects unclear
• No long term studies of health outcomes of
people consuming organic vs conventional diet
• Studies on humans between 2 days and 2 years
“Nutritional quality and safety of
organic food”. A review 2010 Lairon D
• Meta study published by the French Agency
for Food Safety (AFSSA) in peer reviewed
journal Agronomy for Sustainable
Development.
• Major findings:
• Organic plant products are nutrient dense (dry
matter)
• Higher levels of minerals
• Contain more anti-oxidants
• Contain more polyunsaturated fatty acids
• 94-100% organic foods contain no pesticide
residues
• Organic vegetables contain about 50% less
nitrates (linked to range of health problems
including Alzheimers and diabetes)
• Organic cereals contain similar level of
mycotoxins as conventional ones.
•
http://www.agronomyjournal.org/articles/agro/abs/2010/01/a8202/a8202.html
“Organic food-A summary of the
multiple health benefits” Andre Leu
• Current toxicological models are inadequate, fail
to look at synergy, low doses, women and
children more exposed
• Most chemicals not tested for safety, residue
levels too high,
• Report by US President’s Cancer Council (Reuben,
for The president’s Cancer Panel 2010) said
environmental toxins, esp chemicals, main cause
of cancer and children especially vulnerable.
WHO and Questions on GM foods
• GM foods undergo a safety assessment that
looks at: a) direct health effects (toxicity) b)
allergenicity c) components thought to have
nutritional or toxic properties d) stability of
inserted gene e) nutritional effects f)
unintended effects
• No effects on population from GM foods has
been shown (but no post market surveillance)
•
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/biotech/20questions/en/
National Academy of Sciences: Safety
of GE foods. 2004
• Basis of current safety assessments is to compare
GM with non-GM food in a proximate
analysis=compositional comparison.
• Agronomic comparison is superficial.
• Animal feeding trials.
• Post market surveillance useful but not done.
• Agronomic comparison is superficial.
•
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309092094
How have GM foods been approved?
• The basic assumption is that GM crops are
‘Substantially equivalent’ to non-GM crops.
• SE = key concept to regulators worldwide and is
laid out in CODEX
• Criticized by Royal Society of Canada in Expert
Panel Report as ‘scientifically unjustifiable’
• No regulatory agency requires long term feeding
trials. Most 90 days or less. Reproductive and
multi-generational feeding trials not required
Food and Drug Administration US
• Voluntary programme for pre-market review of GM foods.
At end of process FDA sends letter to company eg
• Letter sent March 25th 2013 for GM corn that expresses 3
bt proteins and can be sprayed with the herbicide
glufosinate
“Based on the safety and nutritional assessment Pioneer has
conducted, it is our understanding that Pioneer has concluded
that food and feed derived from event 4114 corn are not
materially different in composition, safety, and other relevant
parameters from corn-derived food and feed currently on the
market, and that event 4114 corn does not raise issues that
would require premarket review or approval by FDA.”
• http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/Biotechnology/Submissio
ns/ucm347763.htm
How are GM foods approved in
Australia?
• FSANZ’s says it is “…the responsibility of the
companies that have developed GM foods to
demonstrate the safety of that food..”
• FSANZ does no independent testing of GM food
• FSANZ requires no animal feeding trials.
• FSANZ bases approval of GM on company studies
and has dismissed peer-reviewed science
showing harm from GM
•
http://www.madge.org.au/sites/default/files/articlefiles/FED-UP-WITH-FSANZOCT2012.pdf
Pigs fed a combined GM soy and maize diet
Carman 2013
• Male pigs 4 times more likely to have severe
stomach inflammation
• Female pigs 25% heavier uterus on average
Response to Carman et al 2013
• Dismissed by FSANZ as not proving
inflammation present and not proving uterine
weight increase due to GM diet. No references
cited
•
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/gmfood/Pages/Detailedcommentary-.aspx
• Dr Judy Carman has responded to critics on
the GMO Carman site
http://gmojudycarman.org/category/critics-answered/
Two year study on GM corn NK603
and associated herbicide Roundup
Seralini et al 2013
• Dr Michael Antoniou , molecular biologist at
King’s College, London:
• “It shows an extraordinary number of tumours
developing earlier and more aggressively (in
the GM/Roundup fed rats) –particularly in
female animals. I am shocked by the extreme
negative health impacts.”
•
http://safefoodfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/SFF-pressrelease-for-website.pdf
FSANZ’s approval of NK603 GM corn
• Approved in 2002. Not grown here but can be
imported as animal feed or ingredient in
processed food
• 9-day acute toxicity trial. Mice given single dose
of purified GM protein
• Assumed that as GM protein not similar to known
allergens would not be allergenic
• Although GM corn had differences in fatty acids
and amino acids assumed “compositionally
equivalent to unmodified corn varieties.”
Response to Seralini 2012
• FSANZ, EFSA, Health Canada, German Federal
Institute for Risk Assessment reviewed and
rejected the study’s findings
•
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/gmfood/seralini/Pages/default.aspx
• The EU plans a 2 year carcinogenicity study on
NK603 GM corn. EFSA guidelines validate Seralini
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1495
6:eu-plans-2-year-carcinogenicity-study-on-nk603-maize
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1500
2:seralini-validated-by-new-efsa-guidelines-on-long-term-gmo-experiments
• Seralini website responds to critics
http://gmoseralini.org/category/critics-answered/
FDA and EFSA difference of opinion
• Unlike FDA EFSA decided GM maizes 98140 and 3272 not
enough evidence of safety (not found unsafe)
• “The difference between the competent authorities will be
how much they rely on a priori assumptions about safety or
assumptions about the value of the tests. Again, this isn’t
science it is a value judgment made by small groups of
scientists or officials. Their decisions are then sometimes
used as surrogates for evidence of safety and their status
as evidence of authority.”
•
http://grist.org/food/the-gm-safety-dance-whats-rule-and-whats-real/
India
• India’s supreme court’s scientific panel recommended ban on HT
crops and trials.
• Based on “the examination/study of the safety dossiers, it is
apparent that there are major gaps in the regulatory system.”
• “(N)ew regulatory body should have area-wise
subcommittees/expert groups in the following fields: health
(human and animal), environment and ecology, agro-economics and
socio-economics, molecular biology, soil science and microbiology,
plant biology and regulatory toxicology, among other
specializations.”
• BUT India already growing GM cotton and imports GM crops.
•
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1498
6:indefinite-moratorium-on-gm-field-trials-recommended-in-india
“GM is safe”
• GMO answers – http://gmoanswers.com new site set up by biotech
industryBASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences,
DuPont, Monsanto Company and Syngenta.
• CropLife – peak body of the pesticide industry
•
http://biotechbenefits.croplife.org/impact_areas/safety-health-benefits/
• GMO Pundit – 600 studies showing
safetyhttp://gmopundit.blogspot.com.au/p/450-published-safety-assessments.html
• ISAAA International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications. Funders include Bayer CropScience
Ag, CropLife International, Monsanto, United State
Department for Agriculture, USAID
•
http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/pocketk/3/
• PG Economics
•
http://www.pgeconomics.co.uk/who-we-are.php
GM testing restricted by patents
• GM companies control who can research GM.
• In 2009 24 scientists submitted a statement to
EPA protesting “as a result of restricted access,
no truly independent research can be legally
conducted on many critical questions
regarding the technology.”
•
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-seed-companies-controlgm-crop-research
Scientific evidence of harm from
glyphosate (Roundup)
• Roundup and birth defects: is the public being
kept in the dark?
• Industry has known from its own studies since the 1980s that glyphosate
causes malformations in experimental animals at high doses
• Industry has known since 1993 that these effects also occur at lower and
mid doses
• The German government has known since at least 1998 that glyphosate
causes malformations
• The EU Commission’s expert scientific review panel knew in 1999 that
glyphosate causes malformations
• The EU Commission has known since 2002 that glyphosate causes
malformations. This was the year it signed off on the current approval of
glyphosate.
•
http://earthopensource.org/index.php/reports/roundup-and-birth-defects-is-the-public-being-kept-in-thedark#sthash.d2PMoMhP.dpuf
GMO Evidence - Roundup
• Prof Andres Carrasco: Glyphosate Causes Birth Defects
in Chickens, Frogs
• This study, by a team led by Prof Andres Carrasco
at Buenos Aires University , found that glyphosate
and Roundup cause birth defects in frog and chicken
embryos at extremely low doseGilles-Eric Seralini:
Glyphosate is Toxic to Human Placental JEG3 Cells
• Dr Cattani: Roundup Causes Infertility in Rats
• A new study from Brazil shows that Roundup disrupts
male reproductive function in rats at low doses.
• Gilles-Eric Seralini: Glyphosate is an Endocrine Disruptor in
Human Cells
• According to the data and the literature in this study,
Glyphosate-based herbicides present DNA damages and
CMR effects on human cells and in vivo.
• Dr Benedetti: Soybean Workers Suffer DNA Damage from
Glyphosate
• A new peer-reviewed study has found DNA damage and
elevated cell death of blood cells in soybean workers
exposed to fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides in Brazil.
• Dr. Thongprakaisang: Glyphosate Induces Growth in Human
Breast Cancer Cells
• Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hoppe: Glyphosate Found in
Human Urine Across Europe
• People in 18 countries across Europe have been
found to have traces of the weed killer glyphosate
in their urine, Samsel and Seneff: Glyphosate
Enhances Damaging Effects of Environmental Toxins
• This study shows that glyphosate, the active
ingredient of roundup, enhances the
damaging effects of other food borne chemical
residues and environmental toxins.
• Dr. Krüger: Roundup Suppresses Growth of
Beneficial Gut Bacteria
Crop, soil and water effects
• Dr. Don Huber: Glyphosate Associated with Increase in
Cereal Diseases
• Prof Robert J. Kremer: Glyphosate Increases
Rhizosphere Bacteria
• Dr Ozturk: Glyphosate Inhibits Ferric Reductase – Could
Lead to Iron Deficiency
• Iron (Fe) deficiency is increasingly being observed in
cropping systems with frequent glyphosate
applications. ..glyphosate interferes with root uptake
of Fe ..
• Dr Traavik: Low Levels of Roundup Toxic to Aquatic
Invertebrate Daphnia Magna
Rotterdam bans Roundup
• Dutch City of Rotterdam Bans Monsanto
Glyphosate Roundup Herbicide
•
http://www.globalresearch.ca/dutch-city-of-rotterdam-bans-monsantosglyphosate-roundup-herbicide/5344109
• Can either food system really cool the
climate, feed the world and create wellbeing?
CropLife International
• Benefits of GM crops:
• Between 1996 and 2011 produced 473 million
kg saving in pesticide use (which reduces CO2
emissions)
• Drought tolerance will be useful in future
• HT GM crops reduce need for ploughing so
allow soil to sequester carbon
•
http://biotechbenefits.croplife.org/impact_areas/environmental-benefits/
Superpests
• Brazil has lost 10 billion Real of crops to
caterpillars. Blamed on expansion of GM
maize. Bt maize kills armyworms that feed on
the caterpillars.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1499
7:brazilian-farmers-lose-10-billion-real-as-caterpillars-devour-gm-and-other-crops
• Rootworm in corn are developing resistance to
bt toxin in the UShttp://www.motherjones.com/tomphilpott/2012/08/monsanto-superweeds-and-superinsects-compoundingdrought-damage-corn-country
Superweeds
• In 2012 49% of US farmers surveyed had
glyphosate resistant weeds on farm. Up from
37% in 2011 http://www.motherjones.com/tomphilpott/2013/02/report-spread-monsantos-superweeds-speeds-12-0
• GM crops resistant to 2,4-D and dicamba
awaiting approval
• Use of herbicides increased 239 million kg
betw 1996 and 2011. Insecticide reduced by
56 million kg (Benbrook 2012)
http://www.enveurope.com/content/24/1/24/abstract
Argentina
• Birth defects in Argentina in Ituzaingó near GM
soy fields. Roundup and Endosulfan sprayed.
Cancer rates 41 times the national average
http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/sofiagatica
• Watch “Argentina’s Bad Seeds” on Al Jazeera
• Open letter to the Pope from Argentinian rural
group on the damage caused to people, food and
country by GM monoculture for export
•
https://www.facebook.com/AfricanCentreforBiosafety/posts/553207478055918
People report illnesses improve on
GM-free diet
• Caitlin Shetterly’s headaches, nausea, rashes, and
fatigue diagnosed by allergist as GMO corn
allergy http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/allergy-to-geneticallymodified-corn
• “Moms Across America” PANDA, allergies,
• Rachel Linden was sick for ten years with asthma,
seasonal allergies, food allergies, infections and
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Institute of Responsible
Technonology. Says people reporting allergies,
autism, diabetes, arthritis, colitis Crohn’s disease,
celiac, improve on non-GM diet
•
http://www.madge.org.au/madge-digest-no-133-aprilmay-2013#two
Cool the climate while feeding us all
• IAASTD – UN report Agriculture at the Crossroads
• Agroecology can double yields in 10 years “while
mitigating climate change and alleviating rural
poverty.” http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/susagri/2011/susagri150.htm
• La Via Campesina
• Permaculture
• SRI- triples yield http://independentsciencenews.org/un-sustainablefarming/how-millions-of-farmers-are-advancing-agriculture-for-themselves/