British Researcher Questions Safety of Genetically Altered Food

British Researcher Questions Safety of Genetically Altered Food

LONDON (August 10, 1998 10:12 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - British research released on Monday says genetically modified potatoes can damage the immune systems of rats and calls into question the safety of the new food technology.

Professor Arpad Puztai of Aberdeen's Rowett Institute said he had fed five rats on genetically modified potatoes that carried genes from the snowdrop and jackbean for 110 days -- equivalent to 10 years in human terms.

His research showed that the rats suffered from slightly stunted growth and were more likely to be vulnerable to disease. It was thought to be the first time that trials of genetically altered food had shown harmful effects.

Puztai said his results meant that genetically modified crops should be tested much more rigorously before being cleared for human consumption.

"We are assured that this is absolutely safe and that no harm can come to us from eating it. But if you gave me the choice now, I wouldn't eat it," he said.

"We need to be far more careful in devising testing programs. It is expensive, it is long, but nevertheless it is the only way that you will be able to pick up differences.

"We are asking for less haste and more testing," Puztai told BBC radio.

Britain's agriculture ministry said genetically modified potatoes had not been approved for human consumption in Britain, although soy and several other products have been on sale for about two years.

The particular strain of genetically altered potato used in Puztai's experiments is not thought to be sold commercially anywhere in the world.

Monsanto Co., the multinational agro-chemical group that is among the pioneers of the new food technology, said on Monday that all genetically modified food currently on sale around the world was safe and had undergone rigorous trials.

"The safety, both environmentally and the human health safety of these crops, has been well documented. There have been more than 25,000 field trials conducted on 60 different crops in 45 different countries around the world ... and not any one of the regulatory agencies in those countries has said that there is a safety issue," a Monsanto spokesman told BBC radio.

Monsanto is currently spending $1.6 million on an advertising campaign in Britain to promote the benefits of the new technology, which it says will make food more plentiful and reduce the need for chemicals in farming.

"Some of the most brilliant scientific minds of our time have reviewed these things and have agreed ... We believe there are very real benefits to this technology," the Monsanto spokesman said.

But many Britons are either skeptical or anxious about meddling with nature to produce food. More than 40 of the 300 experimental sites growing genetically modified trial crops have been torn up or damaged in the past six months by environmental campaigners.

Britain's Prince Charles, himself an organic farmer, fueled the debate in June with a warning that genetic engineering of food "takes mankind into realms that belong to God and God alone."