Activist Post/http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/journal-retraction-of-seralini-gmo
Even from the outside looking in, if you hang around the dubious controversy over GMOs long enough, you see things come full circle time and again – the most recent iteration being the retraction by the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal of the now infamous tumorous rat study by Giles Seralini, first published in November, 2012.
This study was released right around the time I was in full swing as an anti-GMO spreader of nonsense. I was two months into it, fresh from Genetic Roulette and a dozen Ronnie Cummins articles. Heck I even gave Organic Consumers Association $50. Oh yes the rats got to me. Oh yes they did. How could they not? The iconic image became the poster child for the anti-GMO movement.
The world was ruled by greedy corporate bastards who were poisoning the people who didn’t know better. As for the people who did, well they were all under gag orders, and the ones who dared to speak up, Seralini being one, well, they were immediately disgraced by the science community, all in the name of money.
It’s all so easy to believe when one doesn’t know any better. GMOs are the great scapegoat of the new millenium – at the root of the following:
♦ some or most of the common diseases of our modern day society [1].
♦ the great paying off, worldwide, of every government agency employee, every plant university researcher in the crop and plant science field, every journalist or blogger who considers science before regurgitating unsubstantiated claims that scare the wits out of the unsuspecting. (Apparently Monsanto, DuPont and other major biotech companies really must control the universe because otherwise, how could they keep these tens of millions of folks on payroll and see to it they only publish/write about/vote or lobby for what is approved by said corporations?)
♦ the great silencing and intimidation of the ‘real’ plant scientists, the ones who publish singular papers in pay-to-publish journals, papers showing the horrific dangers of GMOs, papers with no follow-ups and often little or no data, papers that the tens of thousands of ‘shill’ scientists all around the world discredit.
♦ a massive corporate conspiracy to put a former or current biotech industry luminary in key government and agency positions everywhere in the world
P U H – L E E E Z !
As I wrote the above bullet points, I realized that if I didn’t know them to be true, they’d be ideal fodder for an article in an outlandish tabloid, appearing under an article that pictures a boy sheepishly grinning at his teacher – headline: “An Alien Ate My Homework.”
I am on this tirade today because when I saw those unfortunate rats one year ago, I was deeply affected by the image [2]. It is one of those anti-GMO memes that etches itself in the minds of people and informs all thoughts afterwards. Even if the study goes completely up in flames, which it looks like it is in the process of doing, the damage has already been done.
If Seralini’s study has any validity to it, this is what I would like to see happen. Do it again. Repeat the study but do it right this time. Make it beyond reproach by your science brethren. Instead of whining and screaming ‘foul’ to your lawyers, get some real data and show the world.
Isn’t it pretty telling that this is not his course of action, that he is indeed whining and screaming foul? See Séralini Threatens Lawsuit In Wake Of Retraction Of Infamous GMO Cancer Rat Study.
As an outsider looking in, one thing I have observed over and over again is that good, credible, cutting edge science draws a crowd. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a study with such monumental implications? Seralini should have molecular geneticists, crop scientists and plant biologists from far and wide breaking down his door to get in on this.
We’ll see.
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Addendum: I am not so naive as to think this ‘study’ will go away. Troops will rally around their fallen comrade and preach ever so much more fervently. The conspiracy theory, the Monsanto white-washing of science, blah blah blah – all will explode among activists but this nugget of truth will still shine like a beacon.
Julee K/Sleuth4Health
email: sleuth4health@gmail.com
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[1] See Samsel, Seneff et al, also heavily criticized by mainstream science
[2] I feel I must be fair, fess up, and say that even when I first saw the Seralini study and its disturbing images, I was one part skeptical, albeit a small part. Obviously I must have been skeptical all along when I was anti-GMO or I never could have changed my biotechnology tune so abruptly as I did last April. I do remember thinking, well if GM corn is doing this to rats, why aren’t we all walking around with bulbous growths sticking out of our necks? That was one of MANY issues I had with the movement. See my last post, Interview with Green State TV.
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