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Gates Foundation To Pay Students To Take Part In GMO Banana Trial

Twelve students will be paid to eat genetically modified (GMO) bananas as researchers at Iowa State University start moving forward with a long-delayed project. The project which is funded by the  Bill and Melinda Gates foundation would pay each student $900. Thes tests are to be carried out on the students without any previous animal testing, so it is not known what the impact would be to the students’ health. According to The Des Moines Register, the bananas were created by a Australian scientist and contain a gene that is supposed to help people living in Africa make vitamin A. When the testing was first proposed in 2014, at least 124 food and outreach organizations, as well as 26 individual scientists, signed a letter sent to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in protest against the human trials. Natural Blaze reports: Food-science professor Wendy White, who is leading the ISU end of the trial, says the project will take place sometime this year after approximately two years of delay. From The Des Moines Register: In the summer of 2014, White’s team sent an email to ISU students seeking a dozen female volunteers for the study. White said that the volunteers would be paid [...]