Caen is an inland harbour on the Normandie coast of France. The river Orne has been used to make a canal for sea-going ships and I went there once in my old schooner to see if my wife and I could drum up any business with our antique furniture stock we carried onboard. By law I had to have a pilot to navigate the river and this fellow almost managed to take out my three topmasts when going under a bridge. I managed to stop the vessel, turn around, and wait for the tide to drop in order to pass under that obstacle. That bloody pilot almost cost me many thousands, I had spent half a year making these masts but I still had to pay the bugger once we arrived in Caen. Governments are the largest thieving enterprises on earth. We did some business and received a group of varsity students who studied maritime things and were interested to visit a working ship from the previous century.

All this I had almost forgotten until I read a research paper two days ago that originated from the University of Caen and described an investigation on rats that had been fed a diet of genetically modified maize (corn) for 2 years. There seemed to be no doubt that professor Gilles Eric Séralini had discovered that such a diet did not produce healthy rats. A rat’s lifespan is about 2 years but long before natural death, these animals suffered from tumours and other malformations that ended their lives prematurely. Such a long 2-year study had not been undertaken anywhere else in academia, makers of this modified maize seed had at most tested the stuff for 2 months on a few animals and there is no government institution to control the effects that the consumption of genetically modified food crops may have on man or beast.

For the last ten thousand years farmers and researchers have modified plants that can feed humans or cattle. They did this by crossing, seed-wise, strains of wheat, maize, beans and others to try and produce plants with an improved delivery. When I was a kid, wheat used to grow to at least 1m60 high, not any more, 1m. is all because it facilitates the harvesting and is less liable to be flattened by rain or wind. Mr Borlaug of Rothamsted Research in the UK was responsible for this successful dwarf wheat and was carried out by mixing pollens and not by genetic modification.

I visited Rothamsted many years ago and was much impressed by their research methods, whatever these scientists discover is not patented, it’s all freely offered to farmers.

This is in great contrast to the american firm Monsanto who, amongst others, produce their patented GM maize seed at a hell of a price. The bottom line of this company’s genetic modifying of plant material is to modify its dollar turnover to unprecedented heights. Monsanto does not only produce GM seed it also manufactures weed killers, pesticides and that sort of stuff. A famous weed killer is Roundup, a dreadful chemical that kills any plant or tree stone dead.

Some of you may remember a terrifying photo taken during the Vietnam War of a tiny girl running naked towards the camera along a blasted track, her mouth wide open uttering a cry of abject terror because she has just been subjected to a dose of Agent Orange that the american air force used to destroy Vietnam’s forest.

Well… Agent Orange = Roundup!

It can’t be said that Monsanto employs dumb people because they manage to sell GM corn seed and Roundup to the same customer while Roundup kills corn also. Trust the Dirty Tricks Department to modify the Maize/Corn plant to accept and live with the deadly Roundup, such a well-chosen name. I cannot tell you exactly how these girls and chaps perform that trick but I suspect they use a kind of homeopathic technique. Homeopathy uses products that produce the same symptoms as the illness to cure that illness. The products used are much diluted as quite a few are poisonous but then… poison is a question of quantity. If I manage to drink down 20 litres of water, there’s a good chance I’ll kick the bucket I just emptied.

The Monsantors do the same thing, they install a tiny bit of Roundup in the DNA of the maize plant so that it becomes immune to its action. When you sow a field of maize it has to be properly prepared but that preparation suits the weeds also. (I know, I’ve done it). Weeds and corn come up initially at the same rate but then… a great blast of Roundup or Agent Orange and the weeds are fracked as we say these days. The corn keeps on growing nicely, immune to Roundup as it has it inside her genes.

Professor Séralini’s Caen rats did not manage to live out their natural lifespan before Agent Orange destroyed them. What will happen to the happy human cornflake eaters in 30-40 years time?

In France, if harmful food is produced, not only the producer but the seller also land up in court. Therefore professor Séralini’s research was paid for by 2 supermarkets; Auchan and Carrefour