“GMO crops aren’t new to Kenya; in 2012 we had GMO maize being imported into the country until the infamous Séralini study released in September of that year that showed a link between cancerous tumors developing on mice and glyphosate — the main active ingredient of Roundup herbicide — which was being used to control weeds on the GM maize. Unfortunately, this was misinterpreted by some to mean that the GM maize was the cause of these cancers,” illuminated Dr. Joel Ochieng, Head of Agricultural Biotechnology at the University of Nairobi

Dubbed the Séralini affair, after French molecular biologist Gilles-Éric Séralini, the Séralini paper has since been dismissed by both scientists and regulatory agencies.

The Higher Biotechnologies Council (HCB), an investigative panel, found the study’s design flawed and that there was “no causal relationship” between the rats’ tumors and consumption of Monsanto’s NK603 corn or the Roundup herbicide that was part of the experiment.

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“The ban which was meant to be a precautionary, temporary hold on genetically altered foods importation was willfully misinterpreted to bar even researchers from conducting studies or any national performance trials on GMOs,” [one] researcher said.

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This is an excerpt. Read the original post here