Reply #5: Dr. Arpad Pusztai [View All]

found organ damage in mice when he tested GM potatoes. He said that the damage arose from the method used to insert genes. The method is similar to shooting a bullet with a high powered rifle. Also viruses are used as vectors.
(Dr. Pusztai was censored and his career was ruined as a result of his research in the UK)

The other problems arise from the fact that we do not know everything there is to know about genetic modification. For example, DNA instructs RNA to make proteins which it does by assembling amino acids. Splicosomes, or code scramblers are a groups of molecules that cut up the RNA, rearrange it and reassemble it. When and how these code scramblers are called into action is not known. But when they do function they can produce a novel protein - outside the control of the scientists and foreign to living things.

Chaperone proteins are sometimes needed to properly fold a protein. When a novel protein encounters a chaperone protein, it is not known if correct folding will take place, if at all.

Also - Sometimes proteins pick up other molecules such as phosphate, sulfate, sugars and lipids, which can alter the proteins effect on plants and animals. They are not able to predict where and whether or not the protein will pick up an add-on molecule, therefore a novel protein could have an unknown effect on living things.

We still have much to learn about proteins. This is not toxicology or selective breeding. It is genetically altered life forms as food. I urge you to read Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey Smith.