european food safety authority

• efsa gives "low-quality scientific advice" on gmos - 04.09.2019
  
  “efsa issued an opinion in 2009 stating that mon810 was as safe as non-gm maize regarding potential effects on human and animal health and posed a “very low” risk of adverse effects on non-target organisms and the environment.
  
  but those conclusions are challenged in the new paper, published in environmental sciences europe by the scientist veronika chvátalová of masaryk university in the czech republic.
  
  chvátalová found that;
  “efsa omits relevant available studies, selectively cites information, misquotes studies, fails to acknowledge uncertainties, fails to call for further research where needed, and fails to critically interpret studies and their findings”.
  
  (...) efsa’s performance is not driven just by incompetence but by an intent to mislead the public and take industry’s side on the safety of this gmo.
  
  in one example from efsa’s honeybees risk assessment, chvátalová found that the authority selectively used scientific information in a biased way. it only mentioned parameters that were not affected by exposure to the gm insecticidal protein in mon810, while it omitted one that was negatively affected.
  
  (...) chvátalová is not the first scientist to accuse efsa of operating unscientific double standards in the context of studies on gmos. in 2012 dr. angelika hilbeck and dr. hartmut meyer accused efsa of double standards when it rejected the study led by prof. gilles-eric séralini, which found adverse effects in rats fed a gm maize and very low levels of roundup herbicide, while uncritically accepting at face value monsanto’s own studies on the same maize, which concluded that it was safe.”