“Not a single piece of scientific evidence” that food produced with G.M.O.’s is less safe than food grown in other ways. “No other foodstuff has been so thoroughly investigated as G.M.,” and opposition is “a form of madness”
This is what Anne Glover, a well-known and respected Scottish biologist, appointed, in 2012, as the Chief Scientific Advisor to Josè Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, told the commission. She was expected to provide expert, independent advice on matters scientific, focusing on technology and innovation.
The environmental lobby went on the offensive, Greenpeace and others seeing their livelihood threatened, the movement is after all big business, and wrote to the EU commission, “The current CSA ( Anne Glover) presented one-sided, partial opinions in the debate on the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture, repeatedly claiming that there was a scientific consensus about their safety.”
There is, however, a broad scientific consensus that G.M.O’s are safe!
The University of Göttingen said in a big study of other studies (typical academia!):
“On average, GM technology adoption has reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, and increased farmer profits by 68%. Yield gains and pesticide reductions are larger for insect-resistant crops than for herbicide-tolerant crops. Yield and profit gains are higher in developing countries than in developed countries.”
The World Health Organization stated that: “No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of G.M. foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved.”
Britain’s Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine-“Foods derived from G.M. crops have been consumed by hundreds of millions of people across the world for more than fifteen years with no reported ill effects (or legal cases related to human health) despite many of the consumers coming from that most litigious of countries, the U.S.A.”
The faith-based religion of the anti-GMO movement threatens us all, but most of all the poor in developing countries. As we sit back enjoying a standard of living beyond the comprehension of much of the earths struggling population, we are at the same time funding those NGO’s and activists who are trying hardest to repress these same populations by denying them the benefits of scientific advancement.
Anne Glover’s new boss, Jean-Claude Juncker, decided not to renew her contract, eliminating the post she held all together. The reason for her dismissal – she spoke truth to power, providing data rather than dogma to the commission.