Ahh the old dumb voter dismissal, good one. Pretty hollow since you didn't actually tell me much about the scientific merits of the case either.
You were the one raising bans in France and Germany as evidence for the dangers of GMOs - my only point was that they are irrelevant to the argument. Governments do many things for bad reasons.
Unknown effects on human health: A recent articlepublished in Lancet examined the effects of GM potatoes on the digestive tract in rats [23, 24]. Moreover, the gene introduced into the potatoes was a snowdrop flowerlectin, a substance known to be toxic to mammals.
Well this is odd for many reasons. Firstly - the quoted sentence is a bit sloppily worded for a technical paper. This made me a bit suspicious about what it is you're quoting; and a bit of digging reveals that the Open Nutroceuticals Journal was edited by Ram B Singh; and published a large number of his papers as well. Ram B Singh
is strongly suspected of fraud; and the journal prided itself on rapid peer review while charging authors to publish their work.
This seems like a roundabout way of saying they will publish any old shit if someone pays for it. The fact that another journal from the same publisher (Bentham) with the same publishing model accepted
a completely nonsensical paper written by a computer program and attributed to a non-existent author tends to confirm this suspicion.
But the quality of the paper aside - that doesn't answer your question about why a potato would be altered to produce a chemical toxic to mammals. Thankfully, Wikipedia can answer that - it's because the lectin in question is toxic to some agricultural pests.
What is not clear to me (from the brief internet search I just did) is whether the lectin
is known to be toxic to mammals. That's what the
cited paper from the Lancet was looking into (that study is attributed to the wrong author's in the article you linked to, by the way). There's a second study in the same issue of the Lancet looking into the effects on human white blood cells. I can't find access anywhere, but
the abstract simply recommends more study before incorporating this into the food supply. This doesn't sound like something *known* to be toxic.
Important to take away from all of this - the potato in question has never been sold commercially, though I don't know whether that's because of fears over it's health impacts or not. Either way, it's not relevant to Roundup.
From food.gov.uk. So all GMOs to a certain extent require labelling in the EU. A member state who bans local production of GMOs ensures access to local non-GMO products, further, due to labelling laws everyone has the ability to make the choice. You're basically calling them idiots for not being authoritarian enough, ironically if you ask me.
Embarrassingly enough, I didn't even know we had GM labelling requirements; and can't find it on any packets in my kitchen. Either there's less GM wheat in the food supply than I thought, or the rules are not followed consistently.
Correct, in case you hadn't noticed we're examining a potential causal mechanism right now. Forgive me if I am mistaken but aren't you in biochemistry or something? Perhaps you could use your knowledge to inform an ignorant pleb as to why exactly he shouldn't have any concern. I'm not quoting conspiracy websites here but genuine science as best I can tell, I'll need more than your word to counter the concerns raised by other scientists mate.
You are mistaken - you must be confusing me with another poster. I can make you a pretty analysis of price trends in the wheat market if you like, but that's the closest my professional expertise gets to biochemistry.
There are studies which directly link Roundup to lower testosterone levels in other mammals. There are studies showing the direct impact of Roundup on human cells including reproductive cells. I concede that it is narrow minded to blame one thing entirely. It is dishonest to deny the real concern for causality in this case, however. Diets and lifestyles vary greatly among the population at any given time, Roundup use on staple crops impacts pretty much everyone regardless of their individual choices. It is therefore a more viable causal candidate for a trend which spans many lifestyle factors and age groups.
I will try and find time to read that later.