Human Health and the GMO Industry: Puppets in High Places
By Colin Todhunter
Anne Glover recently
declared that there is no evidence pertaining to the adverse impacts of
GMOs. This is an extremely disturbing statement. It’s disturbing because
it is not only patently wrong, but also because Anne Glover is chief scientific adviser of the European Commission.
In an interview with EurActiv on 24 July 2012, she stated:
“There
is no substantiated case of any adverse impact on human health, animal
health or environmental health, so that’s pretty robust evidence, and I
would be confident in saying that there is no more risk in eating GMO
food than eating conventionally farmed food.” (1)
In a letter to Anne Glover,
which is posted on the GM Watch webite, Dr Brian John says that her
claim is a “lie”. John regards himself as a member of the global
scientific community ad has a background in environmental research and a
long list of contacts in academia and within environmental, health, and
consumer NGOs. In the letter to Glover, he states that many of his
colleagues are directly involved in research in the GM field, and
between them they have contributed hundreds of articles to the
peer-reviewed literature.
Anne Glover wrote in 2012:
“If
we look at evidence from [more than] 15 years of growing and consuming
GMO foods globally, then there is no substantiated case of any adverse
impact on human health, animal health, or environmental health.” (2)
In 2013, she wrote:
“There
is no evidence that GM technologies are any riskier than conventional
breeding technologies and this has been confirmed by thousands of
research projects. Food produced with GM technology is very common in
other parts of the world, without any evidence that this has been
harmful to the people that consumed it or to the environment at large.”
(3)
Brian John asks Glover:
“With all due respect, that is a
repetition of the same lie. What literature do you read? And from whom
do you obtain your scientific advice?”
John goes on to state:
“I
wish to place on record that there is abundant and unequivocal
published evidence, within and outside the peer-reviewed literature, of
real harm to living organisms in the plant and animal kingdoms arising
from the growing of GMO crops and the consumption of GMO foodstuffs.
This material is freely available to any scientist who chooses to
examine it, and many of the key publications are found within a list
recently compiled and published by GMO Free USA.” (4)
John then lambasts Glover for her one-sided approach:
“Of course, there are others lists of
publications, some purporting to demonstrate harm associated with GMOs,
and others purporting to show that they are safe. You refer to
“thousands of research projects” and pretend that they all reach the
same conclusion. That is of course nonsense.”
