The Myth of GMOs

We seem to be in a run of very-expensive initiatives in our state, and continuing what for me has been a forty+ year run of stupid initiatives that I always vote against.   I wrote earlier about the 'recreational marijuana' initiative and true to prediction it has turned into an unholy mess.  In the end of this travesty it looks like the slightly-more-legitimate medical marijuana industry is going to in all probability be destroyed completely.  The stringent and goofy rules regulating the 'recreational' marijuana industry (a hodge-podge of items to try and keep the Feds at bay and act like the state is in control) will probably have the effect of making sure that no one can make a living growing the stuff...so its easier to just go see the dealer you have been going to for years.

This year's version of stupid is a very expensive campaign for and against the labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).  What is interesting about this expensive campaign is that neither side has addressed in any meaningful way whether or not it is even a good and necessary idea.  The ads are all about imagined costs and getting either poor farmers or surrogates of corporate farmers (much more in the majority) to bleat about horrendous costs, etc.

The simple fact is that there is no (that is no, as in none) science that says GMOs are bad. The closest anyone can  come is 'inconclusive' evidence.  A lot of the GMO work done to date is on crops to make them pest-resistant, particularly corn and cotton.  One estimate is that an 80% reduction in the use of insecticides (about 123 million pounds) is due to the introduction of these pest resistant modified crops.  On the other hand, some attempts to use GMO on plants has apparently resulted in the evolution of resistant weeds that are proving hard to get rid of. 

(Anyone else thinking of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park right now..."nature will find a way"?).

The point is, the science has not shown any harm to humans or even potential harm and in fact the first directly genetically-modified meats or fish have not even been produced yet except for one strain of salmon and it is in testing now. 

So...from a thinker's standpoint...this is all a big, expensive campaign that is much ado about no science!  Unfortunately I think it says a lot more about the incredible ignorance of the American public than anything else.