Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller Roundup suffered tumours and multiple organ damage, according to a French study.
Although Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet containing NK603 – a seed variety made tolerant to dousings of Roundup – or given water containing Roundup at levels permitted in the United States died earlier than those on a standard diet. Additionally, the animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumours, as well as severe liver and kidney damage. “For the first time ever, a GM organism and a herbicide have been evaluated for their long-term impact on health, and more thoroughly than by governments or the industry,” Seralini told AFP. “The results are alarming.” Monsanto, the largest producer of GM seeds in the world, said at the time of the earlier research that the French researchers had reached “unsubstantiated conclusions”.
