Should GMO companies be held liable when your gut starts producing pesticides? - NaturalNews.com
Should GMO companies be held liable when your gut starts producing pesticides? - NaturalNews.com
Should GMO companies be held liable when your gut starts producing pesticides?
(NaturalNews) On Monsanto's website,
this multinational seed conglomerate makes the claim that Bt toxin
engineered into its genetically-modified (GM) corn and cotton crops is
"naturally occurring" and poses no threat to "humans, other mammals,
birds, fish or beneficial insects." But a closer look at the science
reveals that Bt toxin can survive and replicate in the human gut
following ingestion, which begs the question: Should Monsanto and other
purveyors of GM crops bearing this transgenic trait be held responsible
for potential health damage caused by this patented pesticide?
Contrary
to industry claims, horizontal gene transfer and DNA absorption of GM
crops bearing the artificially engineered Bt trait can and does occur. A 2013 paper published in the online journal PLOS One
looked at this more in-depth, revealing that DNA molecules from various
substances can survive processing and end up being absorbed into the
bloodstream. This includes the controversial Bt trait, which was
designed to be self-replicating for the purpose of bursting the
intestines of pests, thus killing them.
"Blood is not free of
DNA," the paper explains. "[T]here are animal studies, mainly focusing
on the GMO issue, supporting the idea that small fragments of nucleic
acids may pass to the bloodstream and even get into various tissues. For
example, foreign DNA fragments were detected by PCR based techniques in
the digestive tract and leukocytes of rainbow trouts fed by genetically
modified soybean, and other studies report similar results in goats,
pigs, and mice."
An earlier paper from 2005 published in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology
lays the groundwork for how horizontal gene transfer affects humans,
describing in detail how GM crops directly alter intestinal flora
through microbial "transgenes." It points out how pre-approval safety
assessments should (but to this day, don't) include an evaluation of the
potential for horizontal gene transfer, among other effects.
