Monsanto’s GM Corn
The United States is, by far, the largest producer of corn in the world. Corn is grown on over 400,000 U.S. farms. In 2000, the U.S. produced about 45% of the world’s total bushel crop. According to the National Corn Growers Association, about 80% of of all corn grown in the U.S. is consumed by domestic and overseas livestock, poultry and fish production. About 12% ends up in food that is either consumed directly (e.g. corn chips) or indirectly.(ii)
Corn seems to have conquered the world. Multinationals have come up with various uses for all this corn and in a world where our food is engineered; where we take different traits from different foods and create new foods that don’t stale in the fridge, we must ask ourselves what are the consequences of all this manipulation with nature.
The big kernel of starch that corn provides is commonly broken down and reassembled to create products such as: high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, di-glycercides, xanthum gum, ascorbic acid, calcium sterate, sorbital, saccharin, sucrose, citrus cloud emulsion, ethel acetate, fructose, vanilla extract, starch, cellulose, xyitol, ethyl lactate, gluten, baking powder, alpha tocopherol, white vinegar, ethylene, fibersol-2, fumaric acid, inosital, zein, semolina, polydextrose and margarine.
These corn products are then used in things like: ketchup, cheese, batteries, peanut butter, salad dressing, cake, jelly, syrup, juice, charcoal, diapers, meat and fast food.
Monsanto’s GM Corn produces Bt-Toxin. It is true that farmers have used Bt-toxin from soil bacteria as a natural pesticide for years. They spray it on plants, where it washes off and biodegrades in sunlight. However, “the GM(Genetically engineered) version is built-in; every plant cell has its own spray bottle. The toxin doesn’t wash off, it cannot be washed off as it is throughout every cell of the plant. Furthermore, the plant-produced version of the poison is thousands of times more concentrated than the spray; is designed to be even more toxic; and has properties of known allergens…”(iii)(xv)
In fact the plant-produced toxin actually failed the World Health Organisation’s allergen screening tests. Biotech companies also skim over the fact that there is a huge difference between the GM toxin and the natural bacteria version and claim that because the spray has had a history of safe use in agriculture, it’s completely okay to consume. But even the claim of safe use of Bt spray is incorrect.
When the natural Bt-toxin was fed to mice, they had tissue damage, immune responses and even reacted to foods that were previously harmless. Farm workers that were exposed to the toxin showed immune responses. The EPA’s Scientific Advisory Panel concluded that the mouse and farm worker studies “suggest that Bt proteins could act as antigenic and allergenic sources”.(iv) pg. 76
In Italian government-sponsored research, (v) mice that were fed Monsanto’s GM corn, showed a wide range of immune responses. The mice had an increase in cytokines (substances that are secreted by specific cells of the immune system which carry signals locally between cells, and thus have an effect on other cells). The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders. See the table below:
| Elevated interleukins | Associations |
| IL-6 | Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, various types of cancer (multiple myeloma and prostate cancer) |
| IL-13 | Allergy, allergic rhinitis, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) |
| MIP-1b | Autoimmune disease and colitis |
| IL-12p70 | Inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis |
As you can see, two of the elevated interleukins are associated with inflammatory bowel diseases and one is specifically associated with colitis.
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