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The Credible Hulk has a great short piece on the fallacious use of “tobacco science” as an excuse by Anti-GMO activists and other denialists as an excuse to dismiss the scientific consensus on the safety and efficacy of biotech crops.
One of the fatal problems with this argument, of which there are many, is that the scientific consensus never was in favor of cigarette safety to begin with…
On the other hand, the safety of genetically engineered foods does have a strong scientific consensus behind it, and there aren’t really any credible studies from any source showing any damage to animals or people attributable to any of the currently used transgenic crops.
Be he then concludes that there is NO analogy between GMOs and tobacco. I disagree. I think there is an analogy, but the roles are reversed. Instead of big business twisting, cherrypicking and manipulating the science to confuse the public and provide cover for policy makers, what we see today is the twisting, cherrypicking and manipulating the science relating to biotech crops is done by environmental and public interest watchdog groups.
I would have thought that after certain amount of time in the public policy field, naive, knee jerk anti-corporate attitudes and the desire to return to a pastoral fantasy of agriculture that never existed would eventually give way to reality.
As Upton Sinclair said:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
That seems to apply whether Big Tobacco is paying your salary or you need to fire up your non-profit’s next environmental fund raising appeal.
Read full, original post: Anti-GMO activists are the ones practicing “tobacco science”
