Monday, October 12, 2015

A good story at the expense of GMOs

Its hard not to get frustrated with some of the journalism out in the world.  Here is one that I came across this weekend entitled "Genetically modified food: Worries outstrip science."   As a scientist this is the kind of article you read and can do nothing but just scratch your head.

This is a an emotional article and I don't want to take away from the worry and hardship these parents have gone through with an autistic son.  I have 3 kids and fully understand that you will do anything to protect them them even when it may not seem rationale to those looking on.  It is just what we as parents do.

However, I will not be as kind to journalism that uses a parents hardship to pursue an agenda of Anti-GMO sentiment.  The parents in this article as just much a victim as the public in that the story is just using them to further plant doubt and fear.  If you read this article you may easily link GMOs to causing autism.  Just like there are all kinds of articles that will link vaccines to autism even when science says the contrary.   How about this quote from the article:  "It’s just another change the Gioscias have accepted as they prioritize parental instincts and their children’s future over unclear science."  Really?  There is study after study showing the safety of GMOs and absolutely no evidence of GMOs as causing autism.  Even if you have gone to all organic, do you really think the crops you are eating have not gone through genetic modification?  Conventional breeding over years and years is rearranging genomes more than any GMO.  Just look at the pictures below.  Does corn look like that anymore?  The reason it or many other crops you eat on daily basis do no look this way anymore is because of a huge manipulation of the genome through genetic modification.   Yet he public is fine with the concept of conventional breeding even though in reality all our food is GMO whether from conventional breeding or using nature's on tools to insert genes into food quicker than conventional breeding can do.


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