French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and The European Commission announced last week (September 20) that multiple oversight agencies, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), will independently evaluate a new study that purports genetically modified (GM) maize—approved for commercial use in Europe and the United States—is toxic.
The study, published last week (September 19) in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, claims that rats fed GM maize for 2 years suffered from tumors, organ damage, and early death. But, since the article’s highly unusual unveiling—in which media were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements that barred them from seeking outside comments from scientific experts in advance of the study’s release—researchers have thoroughly lambasted the experiment’s design, data, and analysis.
The study, led by Gilles-Eric Séralini of the University of Caen in France, reports that rats fed GM maize developed large mammary tumors as well as liver and kidney damage, and found ...
