Poisonous Potato

Controversy
(Scientific Miscommunication in UK)
Dr. Arpad Pusztai

- a Rowett Research Institute researcher

- a protein scientist
- a world expert on plant lectins
- On Monday, August 10, 1998, he reported in a television
interview that he had found that potatoes genetically
modified by the English biotech company Cambridge
Agricultural Genetics to contain lectin, a natural
insecticide in snowdrop plants had caused harm to rats.
Desiree Red Potato
• John Gatehouse
- developed the Desiree
Red Potatoes for Pusztai’s
study
 "The genes that were added direct
the manufacture of plant lectins
which are harmful to insects,  we
know that they're toxic to insects,
so it isn't shocking if they also have
toxicity to animals. That was what
we wanted to know, and that's why
the tests were carried out."

University of Durham
Snowdrop (Galanthus) Lectin
Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) gene

proteins highly resistant to digestion which can be

assimilated into the body.

Some are powerful growth triggers which mimic

hormones and some can change the bacterial
composition of gut flora

LECTIN
 Dr. Pusztai claimed that feeding GM
potatoes to rats damaged their immune
systems and caused pathological
damage to the gut.
 Dr. Pusztai’s Mistake was…

World in Action (TV Program) Scientific Forum

 Pusztai’s Experiment
• feeding rats on raw and cooked genetically
modified potatoes, using Desiree Red potatoes
as controls. One of the controls was unmodified
desiree red potatoes mixed with snowdrop lectin.

 "We had two kinds of potatoes - one GM and the other non-GM. I had expected
that the GM potato, with 20 micrograms of a component against the several
grams of other components, should not cause any problems. But we found
problems. Our studies clearly show that the effects were not due to that little
gene expression, but it depended on the way the gene had been inserted into
the potato genome and what it did to the potato genome."
 The Controls
GM Non-GM

Cooked
&
Raw

Potato INSERTED with Potato MIXED with

snowdrop lectin snowdrop lectin
 Pusztai’s Findings
• The rats fed on the genetically modified potatoes showed intestine
damage and harm to their immune systems.
• These effects were not observed in rats fed on unmodified
potatoes, or unmodified potatoes mixed with snowdrop lectin.
• The team concluded that the effects observed were a result of the
genetic modification, not the snowdrop lectin.

The stated objective of Dr Pusztai's experiments was to determine the effect

of feeding GM potatoes to rats, but the experimental design did not allow that
objective to be addressed because there were no suitable controls.
GM Potato
showed damage to rats immune
system and the intestine

Non-GM Potato mixed with lectin

did not show any problem

Non-GM Potato

did not show any problem

 The Experimental Research was faulty
because:
•  The experiments were poorly designed.
• Different diets were added without sufficient
controls.
• Few rats were tested and were given non-
standard control diets.
• Data analysis was improper and a failure to
account for inconsistencies in results between
experiments.
 The Royal Society Concluded

• The work is flawed in many aspects of design,

execution.
• They found no convincing evidence of adverse
effects from GM potatoes.
• Dr Pusztai's experiments lacked the
appropriate controls and replications to draw
*THAT THE WORK WAS "FLAWED IN MANY ASPECTS OF DESIGN, EXECUTION
anyANDconclusions.
ANALYSIS AND NO CONCLUSIONS SHOULD BE DRAWN FROM IT". MOREOVER,
EVEN IF THE EXPERIMENTS HAD BEEN PROPERLY DEVISED AND CARRIED OUT "IT
WOULD BE UNJUSTIFIABLE TO DRAW FROM THEM GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ABOUT
WHETHER GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS ARE HARMFUL TO HUMAN BEINGS".
 Who contradicted Pusztai?
• Rowett Institute – Phillip James, director of Rowett
• Royal Society – forefront of defending the GM
Technology
• House of Common Science and Technology Select
Committee – with Royal Society
• Biotechnology Presentation Group – set up by the
government
• Rebuttal Unit- by the Royal Society
• Prof. John Pickett – against the publication of
Pusztai’s data.
• Sir Peter Lachman- Sec. of the Royal society.
Who aided Pusztai?
• 13 countries – supported Pusztai’s result
• Dr. Stanley Ewan – co- author of Pusztai’s
paper
• The Green Groups – claimed that Pusztai had
been vindicated.
• The Lancet – Published Pusztai’s paper
 What happened in the end?

• The potatoes were subsequently destroyed, along

with all the details of their modifications and
Cambridge Agricultural Genetics Subsequently
ceased business.
What were the effects of the controversy?

• More issues arise contradicting GM

Technology
• Environmental Issues
– Safety of food
– Natural or Genetic Engineering
• Risk
– Contamination
- Manufactured Risk

• Approach of the public to GMO

- Decision making