The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

172 the world according to monsantotwo varieties—that is, all the already known components of the plant. Inother words, there was no attempt to find out whether transgenic soybeanscontained in their molecular structure unknown or (slightly) transformedsubstances due to the effects of genetic manipulation. Under the supervisionof Stephen Padgette, the study was finally published in 1996 in the Journal ofNutrition, a reputable scientific journal, and its conclusions were unsurprising,as can be gathered from the title: “The Composition of Glyphosate-Tolerant Soybean Seeds Is Equivalent to That of Conventional Soybeans.” 33But this study was far from universally accepted, particularly because itsauthors had “omitted” some data, as Marc Lappé, a noted toxicologist andthe founder of CETOS (Center for Ethics and Toxics) in Gualala, California,discovered. “What did the omitted data show?” he asked in the LosAngeles Times in 2001. “Significantly lower levels of protein and one fattyacid in Roundup Ready soybeans. Significantly lower levels of phenylalanine,an essential amino acid that can potentially affect levels of key estrogenboostingphytoestrogens, for which soy products are often prescribed andconsumed. And higher levels of the allergen trypsin inhibitor in toastedRoundup Ready soy meal than in the control group of soy.” 34A neophyte may find these technical details a little daunting, but I havetaken the trouble to quote them here to emphasize that when it comes tofood safety, one cannot be satisfied with the approximation implicit in theprinciple of substantial equivalence. In other words, either transgenic soybeansare exactly similar to their conventional counterparts or they are not.And if they are not, in what way are they different, and what are the possiblehealth risks?Precisely in order to settle the issue, Marc Lappé (who died in 2005) andhis colleague Britt Bailey decided to repeat Stephen Padgette’s experiment.“For our study,” Bailey told me when I met her in San Francisco in October2006, “we planted Roundup Ready soybean seeds and seeds from conventionallines, with the only difference being that the Monsanto seeds had theRoundup Ready gene. We grew the plants in strictly identical soil, with thesame climatic conditions for each of the two groups. The transgenic soyplants were sprayed with Roundup following Monsanto’s directions. At theend of the season we harvested the beans from the two groups and we comparedtheir organic composition.”“What were the results?”“We offered our study to the Journal of Medicinal Food, which sent it out