Truth about Trade & Technology November 16, 2005 WISHING FOR A CALAMITY By Will Verboven Will Verboven writes that it has now been 10 years since the introduction of genetically modified food products into the North American diet, and in all those years, not a single person has gotten sick or died from eating any food that contains a genetically modified organism (GMO). In this case, no news is good news, but this positive situation has driven environmental and consumer groups to exasperation. They desperately need dead bodies or sick people to justify their mindless campaign against genetically modified foods. So they have, instead, had to resort to junk science and precautionary-principle fear-mongering in a desperate attempt to keep the anti-GMO issue alive in North America. The public remains unmoved and common sense has prevailed, largely by default, as few consumers have any clue what genetically modified food means, or that they've been eating it for the past 10 years. Anti-GMO forces try to justify their position by quoting surveys that the majority of consumers are against GM food. Those same consumers, cif asked, would probably be against the artificial heat shock treatment of dairy products (otherwise known as pasteurization). Pollsters can get the answer they want from a naive responder who doesn't want to appear ignorant. Verboven says that if bogus surveys don't work, then environmental groups will use as much junk science as it takes to deceive the public. With enough money and the overbroad interpretations of scientific evidence, they can manufacture doubt out of almost anything. Take the experiment, cited repeatedly by anti-GMO groups as proof positive that GM food products are deadly, in which mice died from eating a genetically modified potato. What the groups fail to mention is that mice would die eating a non-GM potato. Potatoes contain too much moisture, too much starch and too little protein for a small rodent to survive on. Nevertheless, the anti-GMO forces have managed to succeed in Europe. Verboven goes on to conclude past 10 years have shown consumers are unmoved by the issue: no dead bodies in the street from genetically modified food poisoning, so no need for concern. Let's hope that a common-sense perspective continues to rule the day. Truth About Trade and Technology 309 Court Avenue, Suite 214 Des Moines, Iowa 50309 Copyright 2003