Look Beyond the Scientific Veneer of a GMO Report

A new GMO report that Marion Nestle gushes about gets attention at Collide-a-scape Blog:

...In truth, the uncontrollable spread of disinformation about GMOs is what’s really contaminating the environment. The latest, most egregious example is a report with an Orwellian title, “GMO Myths and Truths” that purports to be science-based. It was done by a UK-based nonprofit group called Earth Open Source, which

challenges the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture on the grounds of the scientifically proven hazards that they pose to health and the environment and on the grounds of the negative social and economic impacts of these technologies.

Here’s how their clever press release opens:

Aren’t critics of genetically engineered food anti-science? Isn’t the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational GM-supporting scientists on the other?
A new report released today, “GMO Myths and Truths,” challenges these claims. The report presents a large body of peer-reviewed scientific and other authoritative evidence of the hazards to health and the environment posed by genetically engineered crops and organisms (GMOs).

In actuality, it’s an extended Gish Gallop that twists science in the most cynical fashion to advance an ideological agenda. If the writers of this report were smarter–if they weren’t so blinded by their own biases–they would have tried to give it an even greater sheen of credibility by not stacking the deck the way they did. That was the giveaway to me...

...So it surprises me that NYU’s Marion Nestle, the renowned food studies scholar and health advocate, heaps such unqualified praise on the report. In a blog post at her site (which is where I first learned of it), she writes:

Whether or not you agree with these conclusions, the authors have put a great deal of time and effort into reviewing the evidence for the claims.  This is the best-researched and most comprehensive review I’ve seen of the criticisms of GM foods.
Can the pro-GM advocates produce something equally well researched, comprehensive, and compelling?  I doubt it but I’d like to see them try.
In the meantime, this report provides plenty of justification for the need to label GM foods.  Consumers have the right to choose.  To do that, we need to know.

The first thing I thought: did Nestle spend any time reading the report, or did she just scan the summary and dazzle at the voluminous citations? The second thing I thought: did she bother to check the author bios and if so, did she notice that they have obvious biases and conflicts of interest that might have compromised their ability to choose and assess the evidence cited in their report? The third thing I thought: did Nestle, as the plant scientist Karl Haro von Mogel pointed out in one comment at her site, know that “very detailed reviews of evidence” from the National Academies of Science [in 2004 and 2010] have previously been done? (It’s worth reading through the comments at Nestle’s blog post, many of them from plant scientists who are miffed at her credulity.)...

From Keith Kloor @ Collide-a-scape » Blog Archive » Collide-a-scape >> Look Beyond the Scientific Veneer of a GMO Report:


The Pundit's view:

Its not cynical twisting of science that's the cause of bias. It's emotional unshakable commitment and belief in a righteous cause in collision with the facts.

We could also ask: are other studies by the report authors credible:

John Fagan, co-author of the report covered in this post, writes about experiences with engineering.