Proposition 37 is a crystal clear example of rent seeking in the food industry. Some natural and organic and other food special interests are utilizing this legislation to obtain market share that they otherwise would not be able to obtain through the marketplace. To see this, its important to understand the dynamics of the market for sustainable ag products as it has evolved over the last 15 years.
In the last 10-15 years, modern agriculture utilizing advances in management, information technology, genetics, biotech, and pharmaceutical technologies has closed the sustainability gap between conventional and organic production. (see Modern Sustainable Agriculture). In terms of reduced chemical use, improved biodiversity, reduced pollution and carbon footprint, and overall safety, the biotech industry and modern Ag could pose steep competition for some natural and organic food producers.
While most members of the agriculture industry don’t think the industry should be defined by an ‘us vs. them’ paradigm, some are willing to exploit consumer fears and asymmetric information by using the government’s regulatory apparatus to get a competitive edge. Some see modern ag as a competitor as opposed to a partner in an overall mission to provide the world with safe sustainable food. Consumer apathy also works against some promoting niche organic and natural markets. Uncaring customers represent lost revenue potential. A scary Hollywood horror movie label like ‘genetically modified’ may be enough to drum up business. How?...
Continues @ economic sense: California Proposition 37: Capitalizing on Information Asymmetry and Government Regulation to Corner the Market on Sustainable Food:
See also What does Prop 37 actually say? at Biofortified blog.
by Anastasia on 3 November 2012
At example of Asymmetry of information : Dr Oz
Dr. Oz Interview with Dr. Martina McGloughlin discussed at Academics Review.
In the comments, Martina Newell-McGloughlin says:
As a participant on the recent GMO edition of Dr Oz I was disturbed at the lack of objectivity and the clear bias in the final format that aired. When we agreed to participate our understanding was that that participants would be provided with equal opportunity to present their position yet the final time allocation and editing was clearly designed to negate the science and present anecdotal “evidence” as equally valid to the peer-reviewed scientific data.
It was disappointing that my refutation of many of the points made by Smith were edited out giving the appearance that his outrageous statements went unchallenged. For example I queried their ex post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy suggesting a correlation between the commercialization of biotech crops and the increase in various gastrointestinal ailments such ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome. Determining cause and effect after the fact is utter nonsense as you could use any random variable as the comparator for example the proliferation of cell phones towers and organic consumption also increased over the noted time period which for some unstated reason ended in 2004. It is more likely that there was an increase in reporting or diagnosis which accounted for the increase in incidence which, coincidentally, was also increasing before the approval of biotech crops. Their comment that the incident decreased when they removed the GM products is likewise without merit. They provided zero context for this assertion for example who were the subjects and what was the size of the study, what was the background of and how many were the controls – what other variables had been changed and most importantly where was the peer reviewed data supporting their conclusions? I pointed out that where we actually had peer reviewed data was from the over four hundred peer reviewed publications confirming the safety of these crops and crop products. Biotech crops are more thoroughly assessed than any in the history of plant breeding and food safety. All biotech products must go through a rigorous safety assessment both in the US and the EU. For the latter this is overseen by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Specifically these products are tested to ensure they are as safe as conventional crops, and have similar nutritional and compositional content.
In 2000 and 2010, the European Commission released two reports that cover 25 years of research on GM crops or food on human health or the environment: “A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001-2010)” and “EC-Sponsored research on the safety of genetically modified organisms (1985-2000).” Both concluded that the use of a more precise technology and the greater regulatory scrutiny probably make biotech crops even safer than conventional plants and foods. The more recent was a compendium of 50 research projects on the safety of GMOs over the last decade. The Commission funded research from 130 research projects involving 500 independent research groups over 25 years, concluding that “There is, as of today, no scientific evidence associating GMOs with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms.”
In Europe, tens of millions of livestock, including chickens, pigs and cows are fed with GM soybeans mostly imported from Brazil and Argentina. With the current regulatory environment and monitoring by veterinary authorities, any health impacts related to the consumption of GM crops should have been reported if there were any safety concerns. This has not been the case for the almost two decades since biotech products were first approved by the EU. An estimated 2 trillion meals containing GM ingredients have been eaten around the world over the last 13 years without a single substantiated case of ill-health. The World Health Organization has said that: ‘No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved’. The French Academies of Medicine, Pharmacy and Sciences have stated: “No evidence of health problems exists in the countries where GMOs have been widely eaten for several years,” an opinion endorsed by academies of science, medical councils and regulatory agencies around the world.
The other item for which my challenge was truncated was the Seralini study. This study is without scientific merit. Contrary to what they claim, this study is not the first to have evaluated the long-term health effects of GMOs. These studies have been carried-out using rats but also other animals by scientific researchers from all parts of the world. No unexpected adverse effect has been reported. If this was the case, International, European and national food safety agencies would have taken the appropriate measures. The only outcome they do demonstrate is that old (2yrs) Sprague-Dawley rats are susceptible to developing tumors spontaneously. Dr. Bernhoft asserts that this occurs in only 15-20% in fact numerous studies indicate that this occurs in greater than 80% for female Sprague-Dawley rats which correlates well with the observations in the Seralini paper. In addition this study group is too small to demonstrate statistical significance and the statistical tools that they do apply are contrived to say the least. In this study 25% of the controls also got tumors and the test subjects were cherry picked for visual impact – there were 9X test subjects to controls across all “studies”- sheer numbers alone would suggest a higher observable incidence in the test subjects. Interestingly, they achieved identical results with glyphosate as with GM corn and there was no observable dosage response and no hypothesis was put forward as to the mechanism of action for this observation. Of course a cursory review would support the obvious interpretation that old, especially female, Sprague-Dawley rats are susceptible to developing tumors! Many long term studies have been conducted with the herbicide glyphosate and none demonstrate any evidence of carcinogenic effects. The EPSPS enzyme which confers resistance to glyphosate is present in all plants as well as in the bacteria found in human and animal gut flora. It is a readily digestible protein not known to have any adverse effect on any species. The fundamental experimental flaw clearly lies with the test strain of rat in which the incidence of tumors reported over many studies and years is the same as that reported in the Seralini paper – this study does not provide any greater evidence of statistical significance of tumor development above random occurrence for this strain of rats.
In the past, EFSA has found Seralini’s scientific findings to be without merit. EFSA had examined a previous animal feeding study paper by Séralini et al. and found that “Following a detailed statistical review and analysis by an EFSA Task Force, EFSA’s GMO Panel has concluded that this re-analysis of the data does not raise any new safety concerns.” And that “The statistical analysis made by the authors of the paper did not take into account certain important statistical considerations. The assumptions underlying the statistical methodology employed by the authors led to misleading results (a simple standard deviation should be sufficient to determine significance). EFSA considers that the paper does not present a sound scientific justification in order to question the safety of MON 863 maize.”
Bottom line, despite over 400 studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and substantial experience with humans and animals around the world consuming biotech cops for over 16 years there has not been a single substantiated case of negative outcomes or a single documented health problem. The problem here appears to be with the experimental design whether deliberately devised to attain the desired outcome remains to be seen.
In sum, I consider that the program’s intent and staging was designed to present a one sided and scientifically unsupported view of the issues.
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