In an October 15th, 2009 press release, CRIIGEN denounced the scandalous approval of a new GM maize variety in Europe named 59122xNK603.  Governments and industry have promised a “second generation” of GM crops in the service of humanity. For example crops tolerant to harsh environmental conditions such as drought, flooding and salinity caused by climate change to help combat world hunger. However, the reality is quite different. Instead these supposedly new second generation crops are simply more sophisticated versions of the old ones producing several insecticides and absorbing several herbicides. The 59122xNK603 maize is a GM crop powerhouse of four pesticides (two insecticides and two herbicides) with cumulative and compounding health and environmental risks as is inherently the case with the new Canadian GM maize SmartStax, which ultimately can contain up to eight different pesticides!

Furthermore, to avoid calls for transparency and availability of results obtained from previous investigations addressing the health consequences of eating GM crops and foods, governments, agricultural biotech seed and pesticide firms have decided to dispense altogether with animal feeding studies ... instead they now prefer to test GM foods directly on the public!

*CRIIGEN (Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering)   www.criigen.org

This new generation of GM ‘SmartStax’ maize (corn), containing eight novel traits, developed jointly by Monsanto and Dow Agrosciences, was approved in the US by the Food and Drug Administration in the absence of new safety assessments according to the AgBiotech Reporter (Aug 10th, 2009, p11) (www.foodregulation.com). Corn is widely used in processed foods and beverages (like CocaCola), and in various manufactured dog and cat foods and livestock and poultry feed.

Adding support to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine position paper calling for an immediate moratorium on GM foods that pose a “serious health risk”, (stating that “Multiple animal studies have shown that GM foods cause damage to various organ systems of the body”), the Union of Concerned Scientists released a report in the fall of 2009 entitled Failure to Yield. (www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture). This report documents the superior yields of conventional crops over the much touted GM crops, the only beneficiaries of which are the patent holders and multinational corporations and their investors. For more details on the environmental and health hazards of these publicly subsidized GM crops, go to my review entitled Genetic Engineering & Cloning in Animal Agriculture: Bioethical & Food Safety Concerns, under Special Reports Genetic Engineering Biotechnology, Agriculture, and Food.