UNITED KINGDOM, August 15, 2001: A study recently conducted by Belgian scientists on Monsanto Roundup Ready Soya has Greenpeace up in arms. Apparently, the study revealed a fragment of DNA in the genetically modified soya that cannot be identified. Greenpeace has appealed to the UK government to stop the sale of this soya. “No-one knows what this extra gene sequence is, what it will produce in the soyabean and what its effects will be,” reports Dr. Doug Parr, Greenpeace-U.K. chief scientific advisor. Representing over 50% of all GM soya crops world-wide, Monsanto grows crops in the U.S., Argentina, and Canada. Foods such as chocolate, baby-food, bread, pizzas, ice-cream and animal feed all contain soya. Monsanto submitted a ” revised risk assessment” after the Belgian data appeared in the European Journal of Food Technology. An Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, that works for the U.K government, concluded that, “the presence of the DNA does not appear to have any deleterious effects with respect to environmental safety and did not alter the conclusions of the original assessment.” Greenpeace argues, “Despite Monsanto’s optimistic reassurances, this research presents further evidence that genetic modification is an imprecise technology.”
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