This is likely one of the worst papers ever to be published. A new steamer from Monika Kruger’s group in Germany provides low-power investigation oozing with no science, heavy rhetorical flourish, and missing controls. The whole thing is designed to scare the bejezzus out of the credulous. And it works!
The work appears in May’s J Environ Anal Toxicol. First, articles in “Omics” journals are usually pretty lame. They are a well known predatory publisher that will publish anything if the price is right.
The clear problem is that these are all pigs from that one Danish farmer that claims the relationship between glyphosate and pork defects. If he really believed his claim and wanted independent analysis, he might send it to an independent lab for objective analysis. Instead, he sends it to Monika Kruger’s group, one of a handful of labs worldwide that somehow can always find a boogeyman tied to GM crops. Without any controls, how do we know the farmer (with a GMO axe to grind) doesn’t soak piglets in glyphosate before sending them for analysis? That would give Kruger’s lab the benefit of the doubt.
I would not be proud of accepting this work and claiming it as convincing evidence. I’d be embarrassed. But the anti-GMs have a thin skill set and ambitious keyboard. They’ll argue that this is appropriate science, and excellent evidence of glyphosate’s harmful effects.
Read the full, original article: Danish pigs accumulate glyphosate!
