The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

152 the world according to monsanto“That’s right.”“It caused an epidemic of an unknown illness, EMS.”“That’s true,” he said. His eyes started blinking nervously.“How many people died?”“Well, but we have many—”“At least thirty-seven. And more than one thousand disabled,” I said.* “Doyou remember?”“I remember.”“According to a declassified FDA document, you said: ‘We do not knowthe cause of EMS and we cannot rule out the manipulation of the organism.’You did say what I just read?”“Yes.”But six months after his statement to the GAO representatives, Maryanskidid not balk at signing the FDA document approving GMOs, whichstated loud and clear: “The agency is not aware of any information showingthat foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in anymeaningful or uniform way or that, as a class, foods developed by the newtechniques present any different or greater safety concern than foods developedby traditional plant breeding.” 36Beyond what it reveals about the FDA’s blind spots, the L-tryptophan affairis exemplary in more ways than one. As Jeffrey Smith points out in GeneticRoulette, “The epidemic took years to identify. It was discovered only becausethe disease was rare, acute, came on quickly, and had a unique source. If oneof these four attributes were not present, the epidemic might have remainedundiscovered. Similarly, if common GM food ingredients are creating adversereactions, the problems and their source may go undetected.” 37Contrary to James Maryanski’s assertions, FDA scientists were perfectlyaware of the unknowns and the risks associated with biotechnology andGMOs, but the agency chose to ignore their warnings.*I did not know at the time that the preliminary estimate of the number of victims was much lowerthan the reality.