Scientist Argues That Anti-GMO Activists Are Wrong

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This, according to Steven Salzberg a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Biostatistics at John Hopkins University, on his recent article on Forbes.

Anti GMO activists from Greenpeace chided

Salzberg, who is also a renowned scientist, chides Greenpeace for what may be a ‘rigidly inflexible opposition” on all genetically-modified foods. He also pointed out that it seems like a misplaced stance that ‘has no basis in science that threatens block technology” and shuns off something that has a great potential for the greater good.

This, following an open letter from no less than 110 Nobel Laureates criticizing Greenpeace for its hardline campaign against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) as they insist that science has declared GM foods just as healthy and safe as natural food.

They cite the example of golden rice, a genetically engineered rice that is fortified with essential vitamins and nutrients that has a great potential for addressing human suffering especially those from depressed areas in the world.

Activists ignoring science and insists it is bad

Even with the arguments brought out by science that GM foods are safe, activists groups like Greenpeace still insists it is not good for human, thus, they keep on with their protests.

Natural may not always be the best

Salzberg believes that there are common arguments that these activist groups are banking on, first is the argument that natural is always better in all aspects.

“Many people find this idea very compelling; after all, we humans are part of nature, so why not consume foods in their natural state? This argument is wrong for many, many reasons, far too many to list here, but I’ll just mention a couple. We can start with cooking: it sure isn’t natural, but cooking allows us to extract far more nutrients from our food, and is one of humankind’s greatest inventions,” says Salzberg.

Another example Salzberg points out is pasteurization, which is not a natural process but has been responsible for saving millions of lives for killing bacteria present in pure natural cow’s milk and other products.

Second is that it makes room for large agricultural corporations to sell more herbicides and pesticides to GM farmers, for which certain formulas can only be applicable for these GM crops.

The miracle of Golden Rice

One example Salzberg argues is Golden Rice, a bio- engineered rice that naturally produces beta carotene unlike any other rice varieties.

“Golden Rice has the potential to reduce vitamin A deficiency, which has devastating effects in parts of the world where children struggle to get enough nutrition. As the Nobel Laureates’ letter points out, vitamin A deficiency affects 250 million people worldwide,” says Salzberg, adding that this basis alone could thwart the concept that GMO food is not fit for humans.

Salzberg indicates that science and experts even support these claims on how safe GM food is, but are only being blocked from gaining good ground to prepare it for deployment to those who need it.

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