In recent months, the [French] media has had little interest in reporting the results of three large-scale studies that reviewed and confirmed the safety of genetically modified plants.
These studies were commissioned as a result of the extraordinary media hype surrounding the now famous Séralini et al. study on rats published in September 2012 – “Long-term toxicity of the herbicide Roundup and genetically modified maize tolerant Roundup”) – then retracted and republished in a lower quality science journal.
Millions of dollars invested in research on a possible link between GMOs and cancer has generated ample evidence that foods made from GMO ingredients do not pose a risk to human health.
However, these three studies do not directly invalidate the “infamous” [Seralini ] study. To invalidate [that study], it would have been necessary to use an identical or similar protocol. But this was hardly conceivable, as the protocol of the 2012 study was far outside the norms of reasonable scientific practice. This was pointed out by experts the day after Seralini’s study was published.
The French Association of Plant Biotechnology ( AFBV ) tried to explain these facts to the media, but in a country where appeals to emotion prevail over reason, French reporters came to Seralini’s defense and argued that the scientific establishment was persecuting the rogue molecular biologist.
Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published in French. This English summary has been prepared with Google Translate and edited for clarity.
Read full, original article: OGM, Gilles-Éric Séralini, trois études d’envergure et l’Obs : le nouveau scandale
