This past summer, 110 Nobel Laureates put their signatures on a letter addressed to “the Leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and Governments around the world”. Noting that the global production of food, feed and fiber will need to double by 2050, to meet the needs of the world’s population, the Laureates urged opponents of genetic modification “to re-examine the experience of farmers and consumers worldwide with crops and foods improved through biotechnology, recognize the findings of authoritative scientific bodies and regulatory agencies, and abandon their campaign against GMOs …” https://www.biofortified.org/2016/07/110-nobel-laureates-greenpeace-gmos/
All of us know people who blindly oppose GM food or biotech innovation in agriculture, despite the fact that there has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from consuming GM crops, which are less damaging to the environment and a boon to global biodiversity. These same people often hold completely unfounded beliefs around organic crops. The truth is that organic farming is utterly unsustainable, because its low productivity requires far more land to produce the same amount of food. If the world were to be fed, just with organic farming, we’d have to cut down 10 million square miles of forest to grow our food.
Did you know: for a product to have USDA’s organic label, just 95% of its ingredients must be ‘organic’ and even these could be exposed to USDA-approved biological or botanical pest controls – or even chemicals from a list of allowable compounds, poisonous to weeds and bugs. Of course, the non-organic 5% could be sprayed with any amount of herbicides and pesticides. (It is noteworthy that about 200 non-organic substances can be added to food, without giving up the organic label!)
Finally, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that organic food tastes better or provides more nutrition or is healthier. What we all know is that it certainly costs a lot more…
