The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

scientists suppressed 177weaned until they died, on average two years later. “We studied the rats’ organsunder an electron microscope,” she told me, “and we found statisticallysignificant differences, particularly in the nuclei of the liver cells of mice fedwith transgenic soybeans. Everything seemed to show that the livers hadhad increased physiological activity. We found similar changes in pancreasand testicle cells.”“How do you explain those differences?”“Unfortunately, we would have liked to follow up these preliminary studies,but we couldn’t because the financing stopped. So we only have hypotheses:the differences can be due to the composition of the soybeans orto the Roundup residues. Let me specify that the differences we observedwere not lesions, but the question is what biological role they may play inthe long run, and for that we would need another study.”“Why don’t you do it?”“Well, research on GMOs is now taboo. You can’t find money for it. Wetried everything to find more financing, but we were told that because thereare no data in the scientific literature proving that GMOs cause problems,there was no point in working on it. People don’t want to find answers totroubling questions. It’s the result of widespread fear of Monsanto and ofGMOs in general. Besides, when I discussed the results with some of mycolleagues, they strongly advised me against publishing them, and they wereright, because I lost everything—my laboratory, my research team. I had tostart over from nothing in another university, with the help of a colleaguewho supported me.”“Do GMOs worry you?”“Now they do. Yet at the beginning I was convinced that they didn’t poseany problems, but now the secrets, the pressures, and the fear surroundingthem make me doubt.”