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Scientists again find that GMO foods are safe
The anti-GMO crowd isn’t likely to be swayed by the conclusion of a new report from the National Academy of Sciences: foods made with genetic technology are safe. GMO crops have been grown in the US and Canada for 20 years. European farmers do not use GMO crops, so the National Academy of Sciences compared rates of a variety of human diseases between the US/Canada and Europe. Back in the 1990’s, when GMO foods were first introduced, the fear-mongers warned of disease epidemics caused by these genetically engineered foods. According to their dire predictions, 20+ years later, we should be seeing skyrocketing rates of cancers and other diseases compared to Europe. In fact the exhaustive 400+ page report, done by scientists, found nothing of the kind:
The committee found no evidence of differences between the data from the United Kingdom and western Europe and the data from the United States and Canada in the long-term pattern of increase or decrease in specific health problems after the introduction of GE foods in the 1990s….Patterns of change in cancer incidence in the United States and Canada are generally similar to those in the United Kingdom and western Europe, where diets contain much lower amounts of food derived from GE crops.
GMO opponents probably smell a conspiracy of Big Government and Big Agriculture and Big Anything Else to cover up the disease epidemic that surely exists. Their campaign to pursue cumbersome state-by-state food labeling laws for GMO content will certainly go on. It’s an interesting phenomenon. Previous to the introduction of genetically engineered plants, the same crowd was all about organic food, claiming organic foods were the path to health purity. Then large corporations co-opted organic food, and it wasn’t so special and elitist anymore. Now Wal-Mart and Costco sell organic, and big food companies are churning out organic junk food and soft drinks, which consumers buy because they think ‘organic’ makes chips and soda pop healthy. Meanwhile plenty of foods now have little ‘non-GMO’ badges, along with the organic badge, the gluten-free badge and so forth. Does that make the foods safer? Not according to the National Academy of Sciences, which is run by actual scientists.
Genetically Modified Organism refers to plants and animals bred using gene technology, as opposed to selective breeding, which has been going on for thousands of years. Humans used selective breeding to increase agricultural output, or just to create plants and animals we like. For example, without selective breeding, we’d have just 1 or 2 types of dogs. But over millennia, humans have chosen dogs with particular traits they liked, and bred more dogs for those traits.
21st Century genetic technology is used to insert genes into the DNA of a plant or animal to confer a benefit not normally found in that plant or animal. Plant gene technology can confer resistance to diseases or insect pests. Farmers can grow the crop without having to dump tons of pesticides or fungicides on the plants. Typically the inserted genes come from some other organism, which is what concerns GMO opponents. They fear that the introduced genes will create unexpected problems, such as the increased rates of cancer and other chronic diseases that were predicted but didn’t pan out.
Contrary to popular misconception, GMOs are not:
* additives
* toxins
* pesticides
* contaminants
GMO is the actual food source, but where exactly are we likely to
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The anti-GMO crowd isn’t likely to be swayed by the conclusion of a new report from the National Academy of Sciences: foods made with genetic technology are safe. GMO crops have been grown in the US and Canada for 20 years. European farmers do not use GMO crops, so the National Academy of Sciences compared rates of a variety of human diseases between the US/Canada and Europe. Back in the 1990’s, when GMO foods were first introduced, the fear-mongers warned of disease epidemics caused by these genetically engineered foods. According to their dire predictions, 20+ years later, we should be seeing skyrocketing rates of cancers and other diseases compared to Europe. In fact the exhaustive 400+ page report, done by scientists, found nothing of the kind:
The committee found no evidence of differences between the data from the United Kingdom and western Europe and the data from the United States and Canada in the long-term pattern of increase or decrease in specific health problems after the introduction of GE foods in the 1990s….Patterns of change in cancer incidence in the United States and Canada are generally similar to those in the United Kingdom and western Europe, where diets contain much lower amounts of food derived from GE crops.
GMO opponents probably smell a conspiracy of Big Government and Big Agriculture and Big Anything Else to cover up the disease epidemic that surely exists. Their campaign to pursue cumbersome state-by-state food labeling laws for GMO content will certainly go on. It’s an interesting phenomenon. Previous to the introduction of genetically engineered plants, the same crowd was all about organic food, claiming organic foods were the path to health purity. Then large corporations co-opted organic food, and it wasn’t so special and elitist anymore. Now Wal-Mart and Costco sell organic, and big food companies are churning out organic junk food and soft drinks, which consumers buy because they think ‘organic’ makes chips and soda pop healthy. Meanwhile plenty of foods now have little ‘non-GMO’ badges, along with the organic badge, the gluten-free badge and so forth. Does that make the foods safer? Not according to the National Academy of Sciences, which is run by actual scientists.
Genetically Modified Organism refers to plants and animals bred using gene technology, as opposed to selective breeding, which has been going on for thousands of years. Humans used selective breeding to increase agricultural output, or just to create plants and animals we like. For example, without selective breeding, we’d have just 1 or 2 types of dogs. But over millennia, humans have chosen dogs with particular traits they liked, and bred more dogs for those traits.
21st Century genetic technology is used to insert genes into the DNA of a plant or animal to confer a benefit not normally found in that plant or animal. Plant gene technology can confer resistance to diseases or insect pests. Farmers can grow the crop without having to dump tons of pesticides or fungicides on the plants. Typically the inserted genes come from some other organism, which is what concerns GMO opponents. They fear that the introduced genes will create unexpected problems, such as the increased rates of cancer and other chronic diseases that were predicted but didn’t pan out.
Contrary to popular misconception, GMOs are not:
* additives
* toxins
* pesticides
* contaminants
GMO is the actual food source, but where exactly are we likely to