A contentious issue in the upcoming Colorado and Oregon GMO labeling referendums is the perceived safety of consuming genetically modified foods.
Question a representative of the National Corn Growers Association or the American Farm Bureau Federation about the safety of eating GMOs and youโll rightly be scolded about theย scientific evidence that consuming those crops is as safe as any other.
These representatives of the American farm lobby wield enormous political clout with conservative and rural lawmakers. They also influence farmersโ decisions. But, ironically, they are AWOL when it comes to publicly communicating the consensus on the science behind the single greatest threat to agriculture, which is human-induced climate change.
Whatโs the result of this willful ignorance?
A U.S Department of Agriculture survey released this year revealed that a scant 7.8 percent of corn belt farmers believe that human activity causes climate change. Compare that to the fact that 93 percent of 2014โs planted corn was genetically modified.
Share this article
A huge gulf exists in farmer attitudes toward science. Growers clearly accept the scientific evidence that modified food is safe while rejecting the scientific evidence that climate change is real and caused by human activity. And this chasm is driven by simple economics. One finding makes farmers money, but the other doesnโt โ yet.
Climate change is swiftly re-writing the rules for all of U.S agriculture. The havoc wrought by a warming atmosphere will have profound effects on our food and farm system. We need to enlist the entire U.S. agriculture sector if we hope to reduce emissions to tolerable levels and thrive in a changing climate.
Read full original article:ย GMOs Expose Dangerous โScienceโ Disconnect in Agriculture
