Washington Post Calls Out “Anti-GMO Fundamentalists”

Last month, a bunch of idiots, I
mean, voters in two Oregon counties
banned farmers from planting modern biotech crops on their own
land. Various other states are considering ballot initiatives that
would require foods made using ingredients from biotech crops be
labelled as such. Here’s a hint to the superstitious: a huge
proportion of America’s corn and soy crop are genetically enhanced.
So since practically all processed foods in the U.S. contain either
corn sugar or soy oil and meal or both, make your food purchase
decisions by simply looking on the labels for those
ingredients.

The Washington Post’s editorial board published a

superb opinion piece today denoucing the anti-scientific
asininity of the Oregon voters:

GENETICALLY MODIFIED crops have increased the productivity and
improved the lives of farmers — and the people who depend on them —

all over the world. Now, they are banned in two counties in
Oregon.

Voters in two Oregon counties have chosen to
outlaw the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
in the productive Rogue Valley. They are not the only ones going in
the wrong direction. Several places in California, Hawaii, Maine
and Washington state also have bans in place, though the Oregon
counties are the first in which GMOs had been actively
cultivated…

There is no mainstream scientific evidence showing that
foods containing GMOs are any more or less harmful for people
to consume than anything else in the supermarket, despite decades
of development and use. If that doesn’t convince some people, they
have the option of simply buying
food bearing the “organic” label. There is no need for the
government to stigmatize products with a label that suggests the
potential for harm. Outright bans, meanwhile, are even worse than
gratuitous labeling…

The application of current biotechnological tools to agriculture
offers a wide array of benefits , benefits that are only beginning
to be seen. There is the potential to create crops that are easier
to grow, better for the environment and more nutrient-rich. Smart
genetic modification is one important tool available to sustain the
world’s growing
multitudes. Making good on that promise will require both an
openness to the technology and serious investment in GMOs within
wealthy countries. The prospect of helping to feed the starving and
improve the lives of people across the planet should not be nipped
because of the self-indulgent fretting of first-world
activists…

…there is nothing reasonable about anti-GMO fundamentalism.
Voters and their representatives should worry less about “Frankenfood”
and more about the vast global challenges that genetically modified
crops can help address.

See also my article, “The
Top Five Lies About Biotech Crops.”