Organic food zealots ignore the ‘science’
ACTIVISTS have convinced Americans that “organic” food is better — healthier, better-tasting, life-extending. This misinformation is spread by people such as Alexis Baden-mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association. She says organic food is clearly better: “The nutrition is a huge difference.”
But it isn’t. Studies find little difference. If you still want to pay more for what’s called “organic,” that’s your right. But what’s outrageous is that this group of scientifically illiterate people convinced the government to force all of us to pay more.
Congress has ruled that GMOS (genetically modified food) must be labeled. Busybodies from both parties supported the idea. The Department of Agriculture says the labeling will cost from $598 million to $3.5 billion.
“But the public wants GMOS labeled,” advocates say. “Surveys show that.” Of course they do. Ask people if DNA in food should be labeled, and most say yes. Yet DNA is in everything. Polling is a stupid way to make policy.
The idea of modifying a plant’s DNA may sound creepy, but people have crossbred plants and animals for years. “The corn we have today, there’s nothing natural about that,” I said to Baden-mayer in my new video. “What native people ate, we’d find inedible.”
Baden-mayer laughs at that. “You’re saying indigenous corn is somehow inferior because you’ve seen it dried and it has tiny little kernels?” she asked. “Yes,” I reply. I’ve tried to eat it.
“That’s another myth of the industry,” she said. “People like you believe that.”
I sure do. I also believe it’s good that genetic modification lets us alter nature more precisely, gene by gene. That’s better and safer than the more haphazard crossbreeding that’s been done for years. This new precision lets scientists make plants that save lives.
In poor parts of the world, half a million people per year go blind due to lack of vitamin A in their diets. Many die. Scientists have created a new genetically modified rice that contains vitamin A. This “golden rice” could save those people.
“I’ve heard of golden rice,” Baden-mayer sneered. “That was a project that all of the chemical companies invested in.” I sneer right back: “Golden rice hasn’t succeeded partly because scientifically ignorant fools like you convinced the world that it’s harmful!”
One group of Gmo-fearful protesters invaded a golden rice field in the Philippines, ripping up all the plants. Thousands will die or go blind, needlessly, because the organic cult spreads misinformation.
At least educated skeptics now understand they were wrong about GMOS. The New York Times points out that many “quietly walked back their opposition” to GMOS. “The science is clear,” said a former opponent in The Wall Street Journal. “They’re perfectly safe.”
The National Academy of Sciences calls GMOS safe. So do the World Health Organization, American Medical Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, EPA, FDA and USDA.
But no amount of science will convince people such as Baden-mayer. “The GMO issue just has not been investigated enough,” she said.
Organic promoters are wrong on the costs and wrong on the science. Sadly, they’ve won the battle of public opinion.
John Stossel is creator of Stossel TV and author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”