In 2012, a study was released that seemed at first glance to justify every anti-GMO advocate’s worst fears: eating genetically modified food gives you cancer. Now, after a long period of controversy, the study is back, albeit somewhat diminished.
The research, led by molecular biologist Gilles-Eric Séralini, claimed that rats fed Monsanto’s Roundup-resistant corn for a two year period developed more tumors and died significantly faster than controls. The backlash from the scientific community didn’t take long. Less than a year later, in the fall of 2013, the study was retracted by the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, which originally published the research.
This week, Séralini and his fellow researchers republished their study, “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize,” along with commentary on the retraction, in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe. The new version, edited for clarity, makes it clear that it isn’t a carcinogenesis study (a study on cancer generation).
“The authors have more carefully crafted this [version]. It’s designed to look at toxicity endpoints, not cancer endpoints,” says Laura Vandenberg, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
“From my perspective as a young scientist, there’s a lot of politics that goes on when you study a chemical or a product that has such a large economic impact. That’s not an issue related to Roundup, that’s with everything,” says Vandenberg.
The study’s results are still inconclusive, but at the very least, they still warrant further research.
Read the full, original article: The Controversy Over Whether Monsanto’s GM Corn Gives Rats Cancer Continues
