To the Editor:
Both the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada tout "the science" when wholeheartedly approving the continued proliferation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the food supply.
But I would ask what science they are using, exactly, to back up their claims that GMOs are safe for consumption and necessary to modern agriculture.
In 2012, the results were published from the first ever long-term genetically modified feeding trial on animals, referred to as the Seralini study. The study found that laboratory rats that consumed a diet of GM corn and glyphosate residue (the primary ingredient in Monsanto's chemical herbicide Roundup) were much more likely to develop tumours, digestive problems, and liver and kidney damage, as well as succumb to premature death, than rats that were fed a non-GM diet. The study was retracted by the journal that published it only after an ex-Monsanto scientist was hired on its editorial team.
In 2013, an Australian study of GM soy diets on just-weaned pigs found that they caused both digestive and reproductive damage in the animals.
Also in 2013, a Danish study on glyphosate excretion in dairy cattle found that glyphosate was toxic to the metabolisms of the cattle.
The science I see on GMOs indicates that they cause health damage in animals. Surely, at the very least, these study results indicate that much more independent, long-term animal testing is required before GMOs can be declared safe for human consumption, as both provincial and federal governments insist.
Now, the Harper Conservatives are about to open the floodgates on Monsanto's untested GM alfalfa, with planting slated to begin soon in Ontario and Québec. Genetically modified alfalfa would be the first feral, perennial, genetically modified plant released in Canadian history.
The inevitable spread of GM alfalfa would undermine animal health, food safety, as well as organic agriculture, which uses alfalfa for fertilizer and during the conventional-to-organic transition.
Please voice your opposition to the sale, planting, and growth of genetically modified alfalfa in Canada to your Member of Parliament before the 2014 planting season. GM alfalfa is both untested and unnecessary, having already been rejected by Western Canadian farmers. This is one GMO genie we can't get back into the bottle.
Jillian MacPherson, Gainsborough, SK.
