The organic industry’s GMO hoax

[Blue Meany]

202. THERE HAVE NOT BEEN 1700 STUDIES ON GMO SAFETY

This a piece of propaganda circulated by a shill for the industry as part of a campaign to propagate a myth about a scientific consensus that GMO's are safe. The truth is, there have been few studies of GMO safety. In a literature review done a couple of years ago there were, as I recall, fewer than 200. The conclusion of the review was that about half of the studies raised concerns about the safety of the specific products and felt that more extensive testing was needed, but large-scale studies have almost never been done because of a lack of funding for them. And about half the studies--almost all of which conducted by or funded by the GM industry--concluded that the products were safe. Among independent scientists, the consensus is that we do not know whether GMO's are safe--or that in specific GMO is safe--but for some them there are reasons for concern about their safety. Probably some are safe and some are not; how can a category like this be declared by anyone--it's like saying all plants are safe to eat, when we know some are poisonous.

So where did that list of 1700 studies come from? It has been floating around the internet for quite some time, so you can probably find a copy and look for yourself. It includes a hodgepodge of articles -- some peer reviewed some not-- as well as industry publication and publications in popular magazines, etc. Few of them have anything to do with safety. But how many people are going to go through the list to check? Of course, there are lots of studies about the effect of one product or another on agricultural productivity or pest control. But these pertain to profit not human or environmental safety.