Crucial paper 48: MON810 corn is substantially different from its isoline
Date Added to website 17th January 2014
This is an interesting study undertaken in Egypt, using a traditional non-Gm corn called Ajeeb, on the one hand, and a Yieldguard variety called Ajeeb YG on the other hand -- the latter bred by Monsanto using MON810 as its breeding stock. This is of course a BT variety, with inbuilt insect resistance. So the study is a straight GM v non-GM study of plant characteristics. We are assured by one of the authors as follows: "......this is to inform you that genetically modified corn (Ajeeb YG) and control grain ( Ajeeb; the same background genetics but lacked the MON-00810-6 coding sequence) were grown at the same time (2011) and in the same county in Egypt (Hehia, Sharkia Governorate). Trials were harvested from side-by-side plots, to remove any possible effect of environment and climate or any cross-contamination." This looks like a pretty secure trial -- and the result is not at all unexpected -- the BT corn is SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT from its non-GM counterpart.
Chemical Analysis of BT corn "Mon-810: Ajeeb-YG®" and its counterpart non-Bt corn "Ajeeb" by Abdo E.M., Barbary O.M., Shaltout O.E. (Department of food science, faculty of Agriculture Saba Basha, Alexandria University, Egypt)
IOSR Journal of Applied Chemistry (IOSR-JAC) e-ISSN: 2278-5736. Volume 4, Issue 1 (Mar. – Apr. 2013), PP 55-60 www.iosrjournals.org
Abstract:
Commercialization of biotech crops has started since 1996, where the cultivated area of these crops was increased from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 170.3 million hectares in 2012 according to the latest statistics in 2012. Bt corn "MON810: Ajeeb YG®" is one of these crops that express endotoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) throughout the whole plant. This study was designed to assess the safety of Bt corn by comparing its compositional chemical analysis with its conventional counterpart "Ajeeb". Moisture content, crude fat, total saccharides, starch & crude fiber were determined; sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and phosphorous content were measured, tannins & phytic acid were determined as anti-nutrients. Amino acids and fatty acids profiles were also evaluated. Results indicated the presence of significant differences between both of Bt corn and its counterpart.