NOTE: Monsanto has wriggled out of a hearing by the French food safety agency ANSES which is looking into the details of any long-term studies the company may have done on its GM NK603 maize and/or Roundup.
One way for Monsanto to lay speculation to rest about the safety of its GM maize and Roundup is to release its own long-term safety studies on both substances showing that they're safe.
Or could it be that no such studies exist? Surely not!
In fact, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has already admitted (while rejecting Seralini's study) that no long-term studies have been done on the complete glyphosate herbicide formulations as they are sold and used - only the 'active ingredient' glyphosate has been tested.
http://bit.ly/Sz6lRI
And even industry's tests on glyphosate in isolation raise concerns regarding birth defects and cancer:
http://bit.ly/WYtVtR
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GMOs: Monsanto escapes ANSES hearing on NK603 maize
Paul Benkimoun
Le Monde, 9 November 2012
Article in French: http://bit.ly/XxYghN
English translation by GMWatch
At a joint hearing held on Wednesday, November 7 by the committees of Social Affairs and Sustainable Development of the National Assembly [France], an official from the National Agency for Food Safety, Environment and Labour (ANSES) explained that the agency would not be hearing from Monsanto as part of the follow up to the publication by controversial biologist Gilles-Eric Seralini on the effects of GM maize NK603, which the company produces.
As quoted by the Doctors' Daily [publication], the director of risk assessment at ANSES, Dominique Gombert, told members of the Assembly that the agency had sent Monsanto "an extremely specific letter about the questions we wanted to ask them, especially about effects in long-term studies. Following this letter, we had a conference call with Monsanto and lawyers of the company to make us clarify the conditions for bringing about this hearing. Following this pre-hearing, the company stated that, within the time limit, it was not possible for it to mobilize experts, knowing that this hearing will give rise to the publication of verbal exchanges," reported Mr. Gombert.
"Monsanto has sent us a document of about five pages that essentially describes the current conditions of authorization of GM plants and NK603. I have not found specific evidence regarding any long-term studies that the firm might have conducted," concluded Mr. Gombert.
Monsanto avoids official hearing on its GM maize
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