<< see all current actions

Demand proper GM safety testing now

Another study shows increased death and cancer rates in rats fed GM. Write to your MP and demand long-term safety tests on GM food and feed now.


What you can do

Write to your MP today asking her/him to press the Government for a moratorium on using GM maize and Roundup weedkiller until they are demonstrated to be safe.

Points to include:

  • Please write as my MP to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asking him in the interests of safety to urgently:
  • Suspend the use of all Roundup Ready crops for food and feed to give adequate time for scientific research to be repeated and worrying results confirmed.
  • Withdraw approval for glyphosate/Roundup to be used on growing food crops as the residues left on food are too high.
  • Vote against approval of all further import or cultivation of any RR crops until the mounting safety questions are resolved.
  • Make urgent representations to the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs to ensure the ongoing safety review of glyphosate includes the widest possible range of relevant scientific studies and makes provision for studies to be repeated if they raise safety concerns for human or animal health or the environment.

Send your email using Write To Them

We suggest you use writetothem.com to help contact your MP and MEPs. writetothem.com do not accept block copied text, and the site may reject attempts to do this. This is because personalised letters from constituents are by far the most effective. Politicians are increasingly dismissive of identical letters they receive.

Please simply personalise the suggestions we give you or contact your politicians directly (rather than using writetothem.com) if you want to block copy text. Thank you for keeping our actions as effective as they can be.


Background to this action

On 19 September the independent team at the CRIIGEN lab at the University of Caen published the findings of a two-year feeding trial of rats using Monsanto’s NK603 Roundup tolerant maize and Roundup (the brand name weedkiller containing glyphosate many GM crops are designed to resist).

The research found:

  • Death rates in rats fed GM maize was 70% in females and 50% in males compared to the 20% and 30% in control animals.
  • Female death rates were 2-3 times higher the controls.
  • Mammary tumours were the most common cause of death in females.
  • Treated male rats showed increased liver and kidney problems.

The researchers suggest the observed effects are due to the hormone-disrupting effects of Roundup and the impacts on metabolism of the GM trait that makes the maize tolerant to Roundup.

Feeding trials used to assess the safety of GM crops and herbicides, such as Roundup, do not normally last longer than 90 days, and GM Freeze and others have long called for longer safety tests to be performed to determine the long-term effects of eating GMOs and the chemicals used with them.

Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready maize currently mainly enters the UK as animal feed from North and South America. Meat, milk and dairy products from GM-fed animals are not labelled to show where GM feed is used, and GM Freeze is pressing supermarkets to use voluntary non-GM fed labels to help shoppers avoid unwittingly adding GM to their shopping trolleys.

You can learn more about the study by visiting our special page on this research, which includes video and press from around the world.