And what if GMO products were good for you?

by Daniele Cernilli 02/26/18
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E se gli ogm facessero bene? firmato doctorwine editoriale daniele cernilli

The latest research has shown that GMO foods like corn are not detrimental to your health, quite the contrary. What serious and documented - as opposed to ideological – arguments are there now to refute this scientific evidence?

I nearly fell out of my chair when I read Silvia Bencivelli’s February 16 article in La Repubblica. Its headline was already quite clear, “Scientists say GMO corn is safe”, and what she reported was surprising to say the least. “Based on field studies conducted by scientists around the world on GMO corn cultivation in Asia, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and Australia, Italian researchers from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the University of Pisa concluded in a report for Scientific Reports that GMO corn is not detrimental to human health,” Bencivelli wrote.

Confirmation of this has also come from Roberto Defez, a biotechnologist at Italy’s National Research Council (CNR), and more pointedly by University of Udine genetics Professor Michele Morgante who said “this research not only shows that GMOs are not harmful, it is also proves they are good in many ways”. They are good for health because its cultivation eliminates fumonisins that make corn inedible for humans. And they are good for the economy and the environment because they eliminate the need for expensive chemical treatments in the fields. If this is true, and all evidence would appear to confirm it, then it blows a hole in the arguments of all those who over the years have strongly opposed introducing GMO cultivation on the grounds that it could be a disaster and should be avoided at all cost. The question now arises that if GMOs are not detrimental to health or the environment, what is wrong with them? Furthermore, GMO corn has not been copyrighted by multinational companies for the past three years and thus no royalties need to be paid for using these seeds.

For sure, there is a valid question regarding the defense of biodiversity but is ignoring research and not planting any GMOs corn altogether the only answer?

These are questions that I pose to myself and I believe many others do the same. Thus I look forward to hearing convincing arguments against GMOs. Carlo Petrini, the founder and maître à penser of Slow Food, often writes for La Repubblica and has always staunchly opposed GOs so it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. It will also be interesting to hear the opinions of farmer associations like Italy’s Coldiretti. I would like to hear their rebuttal, how they can refute the merit of what much of the scientific community is beginning to uphold. This must be done with serious and equally documented evidence and not based on ideological grounds or those of principle. Scientific evidence must be disputed based on other scientific evidence, if it exists. And if it does not exist, then on what is their opposition based?

I have no desire to rush to conclusions and anxiously wait to hear their arguments. At present I do not think those of the current Slow Food president are sufficient. This because they are justified by the defense of “democracy” (which is a bit off the wall) and “food sovereignty”, which means that policy decisions should be made without taking into account scientific progress and without tackling the merit of questions that need to be examined in depth and in their full complexity. These policy decisions need to be made with an eye on the future and not just based on views that are ideologically bias and tend to be anti-scientific.





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