Dear editor,
I see we hear from Summer Joy again (Record, March 25) — this time supporting junk science.
The theory that genetically modified food is harmful was put out in a study by French scientist Giles Eric Seralini in the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal. At the same time he also published a book on the same subject.
The Seralini papers caused an immediate backlash, legions of scientists denounced the studies as critically flawed and some even accused Seralini of fraud. The Seralini paper was withdrawn from the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal in 2013.
Researchers from the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Medicine have all found no ill effects from the use of GMO foods. In 2012, the American Medical Association determined that bioengineered food had been consumed for 20 years and in that time no overt consequences to human health have been reported.
The false GMO campaign has had real-world ramifications.
In the Philippines, (for example), a potentially life-saving strain of golden rice has been trapped in regulatory limbo for years. The rice, engineered to produce beta carotene, would fight vitamin deficiencies.
During the 12-year delay, an estimate of three million children have died from Vitamin A deficiencies and many more have gone blind, this according to the World Health Organization statistics.
It is more than likely that we are all safely consuming GMO foods. In the United States, 88 per cent of corn and 94% of soy are grown genetically modified and much of the food we buy uses these products.
Anyone wishing to read more about this subject and junk science should read the April 2014 copy of Popular Mechanics magazine — a worldwide respected publication — under the heading Junk Science.
John Butler,
Comox Valley