22
SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION
The Scottish Agriculture Office wanted Rowett to establish guidelines for a scientific testing methodology to be used by Government regulatory authorities to conduct future risk assessments of GMO crops. As the spread of GMO crops was in its earliest stages, mostly in test or field trials, it was a logical next step to prepare such sound regulatory controls. No better person could have been imagined to establish scientific credibility, and a sound methodology than Dr. Pusztai. He and his wife, Dr. Susan Bardocz, also a scientist at Rowett, had jointly published two books on the subject of plant lectins, on top of Pusztai's more than 270 scientific articles on his various research findings. He was regarded by his peers as an impeccable researcher. More significant, in terms of what followed, the Pusztai research project was the very first independent scientific study on the safety of gene-modified food in the world. That fact was astonishing, given the enormous importance of the introduction of genetically modified organisms into the basic human and animal diet. The only other study of GM food effects at the time was the one sponsored by Monsanto, wherein conclusions not surprisingly claimed that genetically-engineered food was completely healthy to consume. Pusztai knew that a wholly independent view was essential to any serious scientific evaluation, and necessary to create confidence in such a major new development. He himself was fully certain the study would confirm the safety of GM foods. As he began his careful study, Pusztai believed in the promise of GMO technology. Pusitai was given the task of testing laboratory rats in several selected groups. One group would be fed a diet of GM potatoes. The potatoes had been modified with a lectin which was supposed to act as a natural insecticide, preventing an aphid insect attack on the potato crops-or so went the genetically engineered potato maker's claim. A Bomb Falls on the GMO Project The Scottish government, Rowett and Dr. Pusztai believed they were about to verify a significant breakthrough in plant science
