Anti-biotech advocates have successfully created doubts over genetically modified foods, claiming them unsafe to eat. However, scientific research has so far been rigorous and extensive, and in no way indicates that such foods are dangerous for human consumption, say authors Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko.
In their new book, “The Frankenfood Myth,” the authors contend:
There is also a risk in rejecting new technologies and products, and in establishing a public policy principle against innovation. When public policy discriminates against the use of a product or technology with benefit and risk characteristics that are overwhelmingly positive, which is the case with the new biotech today, all of society loses, says Jay Lehr, science director for the Heartland Institute.
Sources: Jay Lehr, Scientific Evidence Puts the Lie to Concerns Over Genetically Modified Food, Heartland Institute, October 2004; Henry L. Miller and Gregory Conko, The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution, George C. Marshall Institute, September 20, 2004.
For article text: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15729
For Miller and Conko text: http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=246
For more on Biotechnology and Food: http://eteam.ncpa.org/policy/Biotechnology/Biotech_and_Food/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 25 January 2005
