Scotland’s GMO Ban is Not About Science

September 14, 2015 – Genetically modified organisms (GMO) have been banned in Scotland but not because of scientific observation. So admitted Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, this week. Instead the Scottish National Party decision on GMO was based on brand, on ideology, on dogma. Imagine making other important science decisions based on the same criteria. Global warming…bad for the brand….forget it.

The opposition to GMO has always been that these are unsafe foods…frankenfoods. In some cases the opposition is almost religious with the comment we humans are playing God thrown out there for good measure. Of course the lack of scientific evidence to support this opposition has had little bearing on the conviction of those who see the bad in GMO.

We humans are good at channeling emotion and it seems that GMO brings out the worst in that respect. It doesn’t matter that we have been selectively breeding plants and animals for over 10,000 years altering their DNA. What matters is that now we are splicing the DNA and inserting genetic information to do the same thing and because it is being done at this sub-microscopic level that it gives us the creeps. And it further drives the opposition to GMO crazy when we take gene information from one species and splice it into another to create a better outcome….truly a frankenfood procedure if we ever saw one. You can emote about a tomato that has a gene from a fish even though there is no physical change to the tomato other than it stays fresher longer or derives another benefit from this transmuted genetic code.

And there is the big pharma, big chemical, big manipulation issue that accompanies the GMO story. Monsanto is the perennial monster in the tale of GMO. Monsanto makes pesticides and herbicides and then creates GMO crops that are resistant to those chemicals. How perverse state the anti-GMO protagonists. But the GMO that Monsanto practices to help promote its seed brands and its pesticides is not the sole way in which GMOs are developed. Golden rice which is curing blindness in children doesn’t fit that category. It was developed by a consortium of university researchers. Many other GMO crops are being developed in the not-for-profit world to address other challenges…..resistance to fungi in root crops leading to better yields, drought tolerance to extend the range where crops can be planted, and salt tolerance in areas where coastal aquifers are threatened by rising sea levels. These benefits derived from manipulating plant DNA are seen as mission critical for a world increasingly over populated and over stressed by changing climate.

So what’s needed to change people’s brand attitudes so that dogma doesn’t determine GMO decision making? Education…we need young people to understand the science of GMO right from grade school age on. Evidence-based decision making should drive policy, not emotion. Societies need to establish game plans for agricultural practice that fits with their stated needs and GMO should be integrated into these strategies, not shunned. What benefit is derived from ignoring science facts in this debate while accepting them in others?

Related articles across the web

• Monsanto Kicked Out Of Greece And Latvia: GM Bans Sweep Through Europe
• Germany Moves To Ban All GMO Crops