{"id":33242,"date":"2013-09-02T13:30:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T12:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=33242"},"modified":"2015-05-06T08:59:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:59:08","slug":"just-because-science-can-genetically-engineer-foods-doesnt-mean-we-should","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/09\/just-because-science-can-genetically-engineer-foods-doesnt-mean-we-should\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Because Science Can Genetically Engineer Foods, Doesn’t Mean We Should"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently the debate over genetically modified (GMO) foods has heated up again. \u00a0In just the past few weeks, articles about GMOs have appeared in Slate<\/a>, the New York Times<\/a>, and\u00a0Grist<\/a>. \u00a0And over the weekend New York Times writer Amy Harmon wrote again of the saving graces of genetically engineered foods<\/a>, this time citing \u201cGolden Rice<\/a>\u201d as a clear example of the life saving abilities of GMOs.<\/p>\n

Yet journalists on both sides of the argument seem to have forgotten there are many ways aside from \u201c science\u201d to describe the world around us, and that there are other highly effective tools out there to solve hunger and malnutrition besides genetic engineering.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear \u2013 I am not \u201cafraid of science,\u201d a claim that someone invariably writes at the end of an article like this one to try and discredit its argument. \u00a0I, like millions of people around the world, am against genetic engineering, but not because of\u00a0the proven or refuted science<\/i> behind it.<\/p>\n

So the question is why? \u00a0Why am I part of a huge, and growing, group not willing to believe the \u201cfacts\u201d (according to its\u00a0proponents) about the benefits of genetic modification? \u00a0Why am I against the creation of Golden Rice, even if it may stop millions of children from going blind?<\/p>\n

The basic answer is simple: trust.<\/p>\n

Science has a credibility problem. \u00a0It has for too long been used to distort food and twist the natural into long lasting Twinkies and nutritionally void Lunchables. \u00a0Tobacco was good for us, we were told, and DDT was fine to spray on our fields. \u00a0Food dyes<\/a>\u00a0are all still considered safe for our kids to eat, and \u201cnatural\u201d foods, we are made to believe, are made of naturally occurring ingredients.<\/p>\n

In all cases we have been misled, and today it is not \u201cfalse fears\u201d that has bred skeptical consumers, it is experience.<\/p>\n

Equally suspect is the ridiculous notion that anything in the world \u2013 be it love, or windmills, or children, or genetically engineered rice \u2013 can be all good. \u00a0Regardless of what \u201cscientists,\u201d Bill and Melinda Gates or anyone else involved with creating genetically engineered foods might say, and I am willing to bet the farm there will be\u00a0unforeseen consequences, just as there are in every other aspect of our lives. \u00a011,000 farmers in the southern United States found this out the hard way when they lost an estimated\u00a0$150 million<\/a>\u00a0in rice sales in 2006 because of a contamination by a genetically modified strain, even though, claims Harmon, \u201cscience\u201d says cross pollination will be \u201cextremely limited.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what about the assertion that we should all get over our hangups and embrace genetic engineering for the lives it can save?<\/p>\n

Gerard Barry of the International Rice Research Institute is quoted in Harmon\u2019s article as saying that \u201ccritics who suggest encouraging poor families to simply eat fruits and vegetables that contain beta carotene [instead of Golden Rice] disregard the expense and logistical difficulties that would thwart such efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the most\u00a0audacious\u00a0claim made by those who believe genetic engineering is the way to go. \u00a0Namely the insistence that genetic engineering is somehow better, and in the long run, cheaper than other more natural ways of eating and that the logistical complexities of getting fruits and veggies to malnourished human beings are too large to overcome.<\/p>\n

Baloney.<\/p>\n

The amount of money it has cost to concoct a product like Golden Rice is enormous. \u00a0Scientists first got initial funding for Golden Rice from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1984<\/a> and have now been supported (with monies to cover lab expenses, legal fees, teaching assistants, salaries, long patent processes, etc) for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, again and again, simple low-cost, low-tech solutions like \u201ckitchen gardening<\/a>,\u201d improved agricultural methods<\/a>, and\u00a0cover cropping<\/a>\u00a0have been found to give outstanding nutritional and economic results quickly to farmers. \u00a0If people can grow a carrot or yam for far less expense and trouble than developing a strange looking rice (it is bright yellow \u2013 and we think getting people to eat brown rice has been hard!) \u2013 why aren\u2019t carrots or yams the first stop for solving the problem?<\/p>\n

Why are we pouring money into lab salaries, field trials and professional conferences instead of ensuring that people around the world have nutritious \u2013 and tasty (do you want to eat only rice?) \u2013 food to eat every day?<\/p>\n

I believe the real question which needs to be asked is not \u201cwhy is the public so reluctant to embrace the \u201cscience\u201d behind genetic engineering?\u201d but \u201cwhy are scientists intent on solving problems in the most costly and complex way imaginable?\u201d \u00a0Why has feeding the hungry become a self-serving competition for lab funding when viable solutions to the problem (and the organizations to carry them out) are available now?<\/p>\n

Why are we spending millions (billions?) of dollars reinventing the wheel when we already have several that work?<\/p>\n

Just because science can improve nutrition by genetically engineering food, doesn\u2019t mean we have to.<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

Beth Hoffman<\/a>, Contributor – I write about the changing food system. <\/i><\/p>\n

[NOTE: Also read the follow-up to this article \u2013 Golden Rice and GMOs: The Best Solutions to World Hunger?<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The basic answer is simple: trust. Science has a credibility problem. It has for too long been used to distort food and twist the natural into long lasting Twinkies and nutritionally void Lunchables. Tobacco was good for us, we were told, and DDT was fine to spray on our fields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organic-gmo-genetic-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}