Arpad pusztai biography of martin

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In 1998 Pusztai publicly announced that the results of his research show eating genetically modified potato causes harm to rats, leading to his dismissal from the institute. It was vicious and unrelenting, and it was sustained for years, indeed to this day when Pusztai’s name continues to be taboo when uttered in those sectors of industry and academe that still hope for some redemption in the public perception of their deeds as documented by people like Pusztai.

Subsequently they experimented by feeding rats on raw and cooked genetically modified potatoes, using Desiree Red potatoes as controls. He even had a count, which he fondly recalled, of the number of sentences (14) and seconds (150) of televised remarks that he made to the BBC’s World in Action in the interview that led to his violent dismissal from the Rowett Institute and the long chain of cowardly actions against him that followed.

The research involved feeding GM potatoes to rats and monitoring physiological changes. This review was based not on a properly prepared paper, like that Pusztai and his collaborator Ewen submitted to The Lancet for peer-review, but on a far-from-complete internal report intended for use by Pusztai's research team at the Rowett Institute.

GM potato controversy

Between 1995 and 1998 he performed a series of experiments on some genetically modified potatoes which had been developed by an English biotech company, Cambridge Agricultural Genetics, later called Axis Genetics. The team concluded that the effects observed were a result of the genetic modification, not the snowdrop lectin.

Once again, it was designed to mislead. They had been field-grown at Rothamsted, and were intended for commercialisation.

On 10 August 1998 the GM debate changed forever with the broadcast of a programme on British TV about GM food safety featuring a brief but revealing interview with Dr Arpad Pusztai about his research into GM food safety.

Please remember that whatever our animals eat, we shall also get back indirectly. The Rowett Institute forbade him to talk to the press.

The Rowett institute was initially proud of these discoveries, and encouraged Pusztai to publicise the discoveries widely. I always looked forward to this as the highlight of my year to work with him, Susan and the others at the GenØk course, and it was always also a serious lift to my biological learning.

What had been the norm for years in fields such as physics was quickly becoming normalized also within biology. Pusztai was very aware of the precious nature of his work, as he knew his unit within the Rowett Institute was practically the only outfit in Europe (or perhaps the world) systematically dedicated not to the promotional advancement of GM agriculture and animal husbandry (Dolly, the cloned sheep had also been born in Scotland in 1996), but to asking a few critical questions about it.

Later that evening Professor James congratulated Dr Pusztai on his TV appearance, commenting on "how well Arpad had handled the questions". The two key whistle-blowers in the case, Erika Cheung and Tyler Shultz, were young, relatively low-level employees, not board members or scientific officers. The resulting controversy over the dismissal and the validity of his research's conclusions became known as the Pusztai affair.