by John Stossel
Activists have convinced Americans that “organic” food is better — healthier, better-tasting, life-extending.
As a result, poor parents feel guilty if they can’t afford to pay $7 for organic eggs.
This misinformation is spread by people like Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association. She says organic food is clearly better: “The nutrition is a huge difference.”
But it isn’t. Studies find little difference.
If you still want to pay more for what’s called “organic,” that’s your right. But what’s outrageous is that this group of scientifically illiterate people convinced the government to force all of us to pay more.
Congress has ruled that GMOs (genetically modified food) must be labeled. Busybodies from both parties supported the idea.
Politicians like Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said, “It doesn’t cost any more. This idea that … this … will raise food prices is ridiculous.”
It’s McGovern who is ridiculous. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the GMO labelling will cost from $598 million to $3.5 billion.
“But the public wants GMOs labeled,” say advocates. “Surveys show that.”
Of course they do.
Ask people if DNA in food should be labelled, and most say yes. Yet DNA is in everything.
Polling is a stupid way to make policy.
The idea of modifying a plant’s DNA may sound creepy, but people have cross-bred plants and animals for years.
“The corn we have today, there’s nothing natural about that,” I say to Baden-Mayer in my new video. “What native people ate, we’d find inedible.”
Baden-Mayer laughs at that.
“You’re saying indigenous corn is somehow inferior because you’ve seen it dried and it has tiny little kernels?” she asks.
“Yes,” I reply. I’ve tried to eat it.
“That’s another myth of the industry,” she responds. “People like you believe that.”
I sure do. I also believe it’s good that genetic modification lets us alter nature more precisely, gene by gene. That’s better and safer than the more haphazard crossbreeding that’s been done for years.
This new precision lets scientists make plants that save lives.
In poor parts of the world, half a million people per year go blind due to lack of vitamin A in their diets. Many die.
Scientists have created a new genetically modified rice that contains vitamin A. This “golden rice” could save those people.
“I’ve heard of golden rice,” sneers Baden-Mayer. “That was a project that all of the chemical companies invested in.”
I sneer right back.
“Golden rice hasn’t succeeded partly because scientifically ignorant fools like you convinced the world that it’s harmful!”
“I knew at a certain point you would resort to name-calling,” she replies. “But it doesn’t change the science on this.”
Sadly, in some countries, people listen to advocates like her and believe that Americans want to poison them. One group of GMO fearful protesters invaded a golden rice field in the Philippines, ripping up all the plants.
Thousands will die or go blind, needlessly, because the organic cult spreads misinformation.
At least educated skeptics now understand that they were wrong about GMOs.
The New York Times points out that many “quietly walked back their opposition” to GMOs. “The science is clear,” says a former opponent in The Wall Street Journal. “They’re perfectly safe.”
The Philippines recently approved golden rice.
But the hardcore zealots will never be convinced.
Baden-Mayer claims GMOs cause cancer.
“We’re using more GMOs than ever,” I point out. “There’s less cancer now. Life spans keep increasing.”
“Compared to when, 100 years ago?” she scoffs.
Absolutely, yes. We live about 25 years longer than Americans did 100 years ago. Even compared to 10 or 20 years ago, we live longer.
The National Academy of Sciences calls GMOs safe. So do the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA.
But no amount of science will convince people like Baden-Mayer. “The GMO issue just has not been investigated enough,” she says.
Organic promoters are wrong on the costs and wrong on the science.
Sadly, they’ve won the battle of public opinion.
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Borganic say “resistance is futile” – via the Stosselator it done gobbled up. If you ain’t got no resistance, ain’t that what’s called AIDS? Or is it that StockholmS?
You mean that nuisance called Nature just hasn’t been good enough, John? That we need to alter God’s creations because we can make them better?
DO NOT EAT SEED OILS!
Read labels. If It has seed oils, don’t eat it. (that means almost all processed food.
including mayonnaise sadly)) Peanut, olive, and avocado oil are not seed oils.
A great rule. If it wasn’t around 200 years ago, don’t eat it. And eat meat. Lots of meat.
Our species became earth’s dominant species doing that.
Humpty Dumpty syndrome
I saw what Brian Keith and Jimmy Stewart came up with when they mated that horny hornless cow with a Texas Longhorn and came up with that dad-gum crossbreed…. Couldn’t even make it thru the winter…
Same stuff just different package and higher price. It’s a gimmick.
“There’s a sucker born every minute”
-P. T. Barnum
Buy local or grow your own.
I think we can all agree that America’s biggest health problem isn’t that people eat too much conventional broccoli. Next they’ll introduce organic Doritos. And organic insulin.
This shows very clearly that this man is an ignorant fool. Husbandry and selective breeding is entirely different to gene splicing.
I see this same BS all the time. You can’t even argue with someone this clueless as they simply lack the understanding of the processes to even have valid opinion.
What an idiot.
Sterile Ranian libertarian thought process. People should be libertarian but not plants. They must submit to laws of GMO Voodoo Science.
Genesis 1:12, Genesis 1:21, Everything after its kind or genome. So making a pig monkey or a tomato grape probably is a bad idea.
I still suspect Genesis either predicted or was informed by much of the technology and science we discovered (again?).
Bugs are organik, right WEF?
The Soylent family of delicious, ho’ made products can’t be organic, however, due to the human population being super-saturated with pollution, pesticides and phalse dna altering injections.
.
Americans eat over 250 bugs every year in food.
Any and all foods you buy anywhere. Enjoy!
So Harvard Women’s ….. released a study arguing that there is no difference nutritionally between conventional & organic. I would just like to see who funded their study. Once that is determined then we can have a discussion about the merits of each lifestyle.
All I know is I am 70+, exercise very regularly, am vegan and until a year ago attended Cross fit and was able to compete with people 30 odd years younger than me. I have been vegetarian/vegan for nearly 45 years who can probably dust the vast majority of people anywhere near my age group.
What you really ought to be asking if you really wanted to be helpful, especially for those unable to afford your $7.00 eggs is to begin a discussion about the relative merits of eating clean as compared to the conventional American diet, replete with veg./seed oils, feed lot raised animals full of hormones, etc., sugar & white flour.
But, maybe one of your industry groups has chosen not to fund just such a study. You certainly wouldn’t want to entrust a study of this sort to an entity such as O.C.A. or the like.
Finally, you can make a study deliver a finding to order & you would have to acknowledge this if you are intellectually honest
“you can make a study deliver a finding to order & you would have to acknowledge this if you are intellectually honest.”
Yes, and that means we can never trust any study… and you would have to acknowledge that if you were intellectually honest. Or maybe we can only trust Government funded studies… because the government has proven itself so intellectually honest.
Lots of so-called organic veggies at the grocery from Mexico. They look exactly the same as the non-organic veggies from Mexico. I don’t believe for one iota anything from Mexico is organic. They water crops with sewage water for God’s sake.
As long as the Snail Darter is safe.
Like Costco’s organic giant bags of frozen corn, cases of tomato sauce, etc.
I’m not against organic, but it’s a con game now.
I agree, but I am mostly trying to avoid Glyphosate (gut biome) and trust my liver to handle the “organic” toxins.
How can you guess if someone is a vegan or does CrossFit?
A: you don’t have to guess, they’ll tell you.
My answer: “That’s nice. Hitler was a vegetarian.”
GMO foods, which we all eat whether we know it or not, have helped feed humanity for decades. Those with kneejerk reactions against them are ignorant of the science.
Please explain “the science”. What exactly is done to make a GMO?
You want to know the science, look it up. The National Academies of Science, widely considered to be the leading scientific body in the United States, have again and again found genetically-modified food safe, with no adverse health effects in humans. The Academy found that GM crops decrease the need for insecticides and herbicides, decrease soil runoffs, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance soil quality. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association, and England’s Royal Society of Medicine have all found GM foods safe. In 2013, Italian scientists did a massive survey of 1,783 published research reports on GMOs and found no evidence of harm. Even the European Commission, which hates GMOs, had to admit GM foods are safe.
Counter that rather than make ridiculous demands that I explain how exactly GMOs are made.
So, you really don’t know. Got it.
You just trust the experts to supply you with your opinion apparently. Good luck with that.
BTW,
“The Academy found that GM crops decrease the need for insecticides and herbicides, decrease soil runoffs, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance soil quality.”
BULLSHIT!
Ask a farmer.
“Bullshit!” Good counterpoint. You sure showed me along with the National Academies of Science. And I guess your reaction to 1783 published studies is also “Bullshit!” How can anyone argue with that level of logic?
You have done nothing to make your case except displaying that you “trust the experts”. You have shown nothing that suggests you even understand the processes you support.
1783 published studies. Well, that just make is so then, right?
Keep on trusting “the science”. I am sure it will never let you down. After all, the “experts” never make mistakes.
Thalidomide, Vioxx, Chantrix……… All as safe as GMO according to the “experts” of the time.
In 20 years I suspect the same “oops” will be issued regarding GMO.
You’re right. Because of the covid disaster we should never trust science again. We should never trust experts again. In farming for example, farmers are the experts. We shouldn’t trust them, I guess. They use all sorts of scientific advancements in growing food from tractors to cross-bred plants to fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, and so on. Throw them all out! They’re based on science!
I’m through arguing with you. We speak different languages and will never agree. Good night.
You didn’t argue. You asserted, tried to mock poorly and now you run away instead of engaging in actual debate.
You could have just explained what it takes to make a GMO. Then we could have discussed the consequences and benefits. But no. You just had to be taken as correct, no questioning allowed.
You would make a good “expert” IMO.
Did I bring up Covid?
Yes you did moron. COVID vaccines are created with gene editing – just like GMO. That is the controversy with them. In point of fact the vaccines are Genetically Modified.
Did you get yours?
Quite the stretch there.
Moron? Well, fuck you too.
Yes, in fact they perform gene editing in people..and they are deadly..Is that your point?
No one ever should have “trusted” them to begin with. But, yeah, Covid did put a pretty fine point on why.
But you can go with the idea that if it’s in a “reputable”, peer-reviewed journal it is unerring absolute truth, if you want.
I’m a farmer and I haven’t found anything you’ve said that I agree with.
Of course when you use the word farmer you mean industrial agriculture specialist. Two very different things.
Well, farmer to me is my relatives who have several sections in Sask. That scale would be industrial, but they are just farmers. They are rejecting much of the new bio-tech as unnecessary and too costly for the return. They also are aware the entire ‘food safety’ system has fallen to regulatory capture and is all about the $$$$$$$$$. Food safety probably is still considered, but $$$$$$$$$ come first.
I suppose they could be considered “experts”, but they are boots on the ground and not white coated office drones.
“Thalidomide, Vioxx, Chantrix……… All as safe as GMO according to the “experts” of the time.”
Yes, sometimes mankind messes up. We notice things and fix them. It’s called learning. You would have mankind just quit? Go back to living in caves because we made a mistake?
And since you hide behind anonymity, I’m sure you have advanced degrees in Ag Science and Genetics. So, just who do YOU trust? I’m betting you just trust your feeeelings.
Another Alinsky retort right from Uncle Sauls rules for radicals 101.
According to you he said all that! Going back to caves? He only trusts his feelings?
While you seem to be saying trust the Ag science and Geneticists. They work for the same dudes and dames that Tedros and Faucci do.
Trust the science says Stu. How many jabs and death and deformed humans later.
Right over the target.
I love it when the newbs come out in force.
N.A.Science. Sure, I believe you but thousands wouldn’t. Trust the science again.
Well alrighty then.
Round-up ready crops decrease herbicide use, runoff, and enhance soils?
Do you really need a “published, peer-reviewed study” to tell you how that’s wrong?
“Follow the (bought & paid for) Science!”
“Trust the (bought & paid for) Experts!”
got it.
Hell no bobby. You made a shit statement without any backup. You look it up and get back to us and never mind linking the Company supplied directives.
Ummm. Glyphosate? GMOs are designed to tolerate being doused in it.
Are you following all the court cases concluding it is toxic and unsafe for humans? You want that all over your food?
They are trying to achieve this with novel proteins. That means proteins made in a lab with trial and error that have never been introduced in the wild before, and somehow none of the experts are concerned. Most of the mechanism that would lead to an abundance of caution have been discovered within the last 2 decades (many of them in the last 10 and it continues). There are a lot of experts out there that do not know shit.
They do know how to accept payments.
Correct Robert.
Without GMO food, the scourge of historic yearly human famine would be with us still
world wide. As it had been forever. “Frankenfood” is an invention of leftist idiots who know
nothing about the history of famines. Farmers have been creating “Frankenfoods” since forever by crossbreeding seeds to be more fecund and disease resistant.
To argue otherwise betrays a deep ignorance.
inserting genetic material same as hybridization?
How did they do this “crossbreeding seeds”?
You’re citing groups that made people wear masks and stand six feet apart when they weren’t locked up in their houses for two years because of the flu.
Their opinions are meaningless.
Hey Bobbb Suck on this. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/genetically-modified-crops-pesticides_n_1931020
Genetically altered plants that produce their own pesticides is good thing? Your deceived. “Plants can be given genes that help the plants’ bodies make substances to fight pests. These self-made pesticides are called “plant-incorporated protectants” (PIPs). PIP-producing crops are sometimes called “genetically modified” (GM) or “genetically engineered” (GE).”
Anyone saying that should go our and eat hemlock and let us know how that natural health food works out.
Same experts who told us that mRNA vaccines are safe?
https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/science-and-history-gmos-and-other-food-modification-processes
Should get you started. lots of other ‘good stuff’ out there if you care to look, big shout-out to algore.
Is that you John?
Yeah all you knee jerkers. Trust the science. Eat your GMO’s, put on your mask take the shot and shut the fuc up and listen to Bobbb the penis jerker.
What science? Seed oils have been proven to be bad for humans, yet they are in everything…The manufacturers and Monsanto don’t care about science…,
Look up the risk factors of novel proteins and the impact of gut biome health.
i buy only organic. anyone who does otherwise endangers his health. this article is retarded beyond all comprehension. eat your gmo food, get a boster, and die.
Important to Understand:
Organic foods in your grocery store are a gimmick. Unless your sure where it came from, who grew it, how, and with what your a little to trusting. I mean, I agree that the poisons in GMO growing technology can be dangerous. But the only way you can be sure is to know who, where and how it was grown and most importantly with what. Other wise your putting your trust in the corporate farming institutions and we all know their honest like the day is long.
Important Information:
Most of the seeds being used in todays farms big and small are owned and patented by companies like Monsanto. The seeds are the GMO. Do the research. You may be surprised how powerful the Monsanto companies and the like are. It is rare these days to find a farm that is not using these seed types, again that is the GMO.
Don’t mistake Organic for Non-GMO two very different things. If you doubt it, take some of your organic grown food and try to use the seeds to grown another crop. Root vegetables(tubers) are the only exception. If they all rot in the ground and don’t germinate they are GMO seeds. If you see fruit’s or vegetable’s that should have seeds and does not, that is a GMO food product for sure. If it grows but bares no yield after attempted pollination it is a queer, that is a GMO plant, It’s hard to even find watermelon that is not a GMO product these days Organic or not, as an example.
One more thing, a lot of the seeds you buy in the store are one shot charlies(GMO’s), They will bare a yield once. The seedlings from many of these plants and produce will not grow again or will grow queer. Finding a trusted seed provided that sells un-adulterated seed is hard to find these days you will pay a premium. They are out there but are not easy to find. Corn is a great example of this. Try it, a fun experiment. If you find that your seeds extracted from your yield will bare product then extract enough seed from your yield to put in your seed bank for next season. It may save your life.
“If you see fruit’s or vegetable’s that should have seeds and does not, that is a GMO food product for sure”
I’m sure no one will see this, but this isn’t true. There are different ways it can happen. I also wouldn’t trust other things like GMO seeds not sprouting, though I haven’t actually paid attention to that before.
I agree with not trusting the ‘Organic’ label though.
Th first thing people should get into their heads is that to advertise food as ‘organic’ one has to get government approval. They own the word and its going to cost you.
That is NOT the fault of the organic farmer, organic distributor, or anyone else. What’s the point?
He just told you his point.
It is not about blame, it is about facts.
The lost art of planting by the moon. Too much like letting God be in charge. GMO’s are what God flooded the earth over. The fallen watchers were teaching humans the evil art of genetic modification.
“…GMO’s are what God flooded the earth over…”
This is the kind of thing that made me put my feet down on this website and stick around. That statement is dead-on accurate and of profound importance for understanding the magnitude of FUCKING WITH GOD’S CREATION.
It does not go well for man when he does that.
And it never will.
Lost on most and it’s a sad thing. As in the days of Noah. It goes hand in hand with If the Lord had not shortened the days there would be no flesh saved. These Vaxx’s and GMO’s and Roundup and it’s clones will affect our progeny for a century. Assuming God allows us that much more which I doubt.
Amen.
Seeds, leaves, stems, roots, and nuts contain chemicals the plant makes to deter animals from eating them. Ruminants have multiple stomachs to deal with eating grass and which ruminants are the food of carnivores. Make sense? Fruit bearing plants invite other creatures to eat the fruit as this is the way seeds get dispersed.
The lesson for JS is to eat meat from grass-fed cows and also fruit lest he get poisoned slowly but surely. Consume raw honey and raw milk, also. Forget the wheat and rice and veggies. It’s science. The only place we see fat carnivores is in the zoo or in homes where they are fed products and not appropriate food.
Oh, but the argument will come up that the earth cannot support all the humans on such a diet. That’d be wrong as animal husbandry requires much less land and this land will not necessarily support edible crops anyway; furthermore, the land becomes more and more fertile from animal grazing and requires less water. And less or none of the petroleum products used to make plants grow in soils now dead to the essential underground life it once had and therefore devoid of essential nutrition.
There’s land aplenty. Maybe in India or some other place where the population density has reached absurd levels, food might have to be imported until reason established itself in place of cultures where the more children you have the more farming you can do, which would no longer be a necessity.
I see a long time vegan here supports his lifestyle with facts about his own life. Good on him. I was also a vegan/veghead for thirty years until stress, and I’ll guess inadequate nutrition, gave me congestive heart failure and a heart the size of a football. That was 24 years ago and I’m now 80. We all have stories, but science comes down on the side of a carnivore and fruit diet being best for mankind. Exceptions are to be expected, but to rely on them is not scientific, but rather they are a point of study.
Just look at the top level athletes who went vegan. Performance dropped substantially. I follow MMA more than boxing and its happened to a few of the guys. They don’t have the power or stamina after switching. It just happened to one of the best (undefeated) boxers in the world. Lost his first fight….not that any of us are at that level but you definitely see a drop off. Men were made to eat meat.
I went the Veggie route for two years 35 years ago. The evidence was in just one year later but didn’t accept it.
Nobody ever died from fiber. I love cucumbers not so much for the taste, but the way they make me feel. The tocopherols are good for me and my blood chemistry. Green beans would cure my canker sores, back when I used to get them for whatever reason.
The rest I agree with.
I just learned I love beef liver and onions, because our local southern restaurant cooks it perfect, and I had only had the military version. If you ain’t eating the veggies, you probably need the organ meats to substitute.
Stossel’s biggest problem is that if he doesn’t agree with something, it is WRONG. A libertarian would allow it to exist and be fine, but simply not choose it. He denies the issues with GMO food, he denies the health benefits of purchasing produce that has not been sprayed with RoundUp, chemical pesticides, or grown with chemical fertilizers. He has never met any scientific “advancement” that he doesn’t think should be forced on people. Not sure why anyone listens to him anymore on anything of importance. Not sure why anyone considers him a libertarian either.
He completely skips the monetary aspect of corporate seeds costing farmers a lot more $ in the long run too
Having an insufficient worldview, like Stossel does, means periodically setting down in enemy territory. Bad, bad juju.
“…to be the eternal revolutionary…”
GET SOME!!! That’s what “know thy enemy” looks like. Comes from having a sufficient worldview. Stossel should take notes.
Perhaps a better use of our time would be discussing the farce that the Government approved “Organic” has become.
Unless it has been certified by a more localized natural food organization that you can trace back to individuals for verification, I wouldn’t depend on the organic label.
Even then you should know your source if possible. A quick tour of you-tube videos showing what people consider range fed chicken and eggs should give you pause. I’m sure it’s far better than known battery roasters and egg snot from Aldi’s and Walters but still being fed GMO grains.
And the sneaky grocer.
Those GMO/herbicided/fungicided/insecticided products look a lot like the organic ones that sell for 3x the price. I wonder how much gets put in the wrong bin, by profitable “mistake”.
As someone pointed out above, if you don’t know the source and handling, it’s just a crapshoot as to whether you are actually getting “organic”.
Best to grow/raise your own.
I shop at a Coop for a few things like fruit and raw milk. Get my meat from local ranchers who also seem honest. I would think that Costco and Trader Joe’s would have an honest approach. I once sold product to TJ’s and they come and inspect your plant for cleanliness and so on as well.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the GMO labelling will cost from $598 million to $3.5 billion.
That’s quite a spread. And I doubt that all the labels ever made since the first ones scrawled on the caves in Altimira have totalled 3.5 billion dollars, but hey, I’m a skeptic.
I’ve heard the name John Stossel before, but I never knew what a flighty bitch he was until I read this piece of histrionics-
Thousands will die or go blind, needlessly, because the organic cult spreads misinformation.
Totally John, totally.
I am always wary around 75 year old men who dye their hair black and wear those Village People style pornstaches, but that’s just me.
Of course that’s all just surface stuff. Here’s the money shot-
The National Academy of Sciences calls GMOs safe. So do the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA.
Checkmate, John.
“The National Academy of Sciences calls GMOs safe. So do the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA.”
That did it for me too. If there ever was a time to plagiarize “The Stupid, it burns”.
He must not be doing so well on his inflated insurance claims for his storm damaged beach house these days?
I studied that science when it was new, and I was convinced. Later I went back to study that science and it was all changed, because new layers of complexity had been discovered and this meant all the previous assurances of safety were in error. Don’t expect that to be officially corrected in our lifetime .
In between my two stints in academia, the media was completely captured and so was academia.
The hubris of men thinking they can make a better egg than God.
Very few people believe in God and even fewer know Him, because the only path is Jesus Christ. I didn’t believe it myself, until I took a leap of faith.
I save hard earned money. No staying up with the Joneses, or losing my money buying organic BS, or any other fad junk of the month marketing garbage.
Studies mean nothing. Neither do the pronouncements of institutions. Events of the past two years demonstrate why.
If your solution for vitamin A deficiency involves tampering with fundamental natural processes for profit, your priorities are out of order.
Really. One could just eat sled dog liver if lacking in vitamin A. Worked out well in the past.
Crude oil is organic. All food is organic, that fertilizer may not have been used does not alter a damn thing other than the actual quality of the vegetables.
It really is a silly label that takes a high degree of ignorance to not cause dissonance.
This guy must be paid directly from monsanto and/or bill gates. I buy organic and non gmo exclusively, because I would rather not eat something that has been genetically modified with round up and who knows what else. Things like that cause bad things in the body. Do your homework on exactly how they modify this stuff John, and you might find out some crazy stuff.
GMO food is as safe as Pfizer COVID “vaccines”.