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Tag Archives: Julie Kelly

Anti-Glyphosate Goons and Gullibility

15 Sunday May 2016

Posted by pnoetx in Agriculture, Regulation, Technology

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Tags

Biology Fortified, Carcinogens, Christopher Portier, David Zaruk, Environmental Defense Fund, EPA, Farmer's Daughter, Glyphosate, IARC, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Julie Kelly, Kathryn Guyton, Matt Ridley, psuedoscience, Rational Optimist, Risk Monger, Roundup, Toxicity, WHO, World Health Organization

pseudociencia-a-saco

See the Postscript below.

A “roundup” of findings on the safety of glyphosate shows that the herbicide is very benign, highly unlikely to pose any real threat to humans, and far less toxic than many common household chemicals and even natural hazards in the environment. However, the debate over glyphosate is heavily politicized, as illustrated by the unsavory details surrounding a report issued last year by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization (WHO). The IARC reclassified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” based on a few cherry-picked, poorly-designed studies with weak statistical power. That finding is inconsistent with the vast preponderance research, which shows that glyphosate is not a significant threat to human health.

The Farmer’s Daughter provided a good summary of the issues shortly after the IARC’s ruling was announced last year. She offers the following quote from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

“The U.S. EPA classified glyphosate as Group E, evidence of non-carcinogenicity in humans. The U.S. EPA does not consider glyphosate to be a human carcinogen based on studies of laboratory animals that did not produce compelling evidence of carcinogenicity.“

European regulators reached similar conclusions and are rather damning in their assessment of the IARC’s findings, though Brussels recently disregarded their findings and decided to ban the sale of glyphosate for gardening. In this post at Biology Fortified, Anastasia Bodnar discusses the low toxicity of glyphosate with links to several recent studies on its safety. And here is the Risk Monger blogs’s list of “ten reasons why glyphosate is the herbicide of the century“:

  1. Controlling invasive weeds leads to better agricultural yields
  2. Better yields = less land in production = more meadows and biodiversity
  3. Extremely low toxicity levels compared to (organic) alternatives
  4. Allows for no or low till farming – better for soil management
  5. Reduces CO2 emissions (compared to organic)
  6. Glyphosate saves lives
  7. It is much more affordable and effective than other options
  8. Glyphosate is off patent so no single company is profiting heavily from it
  9. Glyphosate-resistant crops allow for more ecological weed management practices
  10. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that glyphosate is safe for humans

How, then, did the IARC reach such a negative conclusion? Again from the Risk Monger, David Zaruk, the IARC hired just one external technical advisor, Christopher Portier, an activist previously employed by an NGO, the anti-pesticide Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Portier has no technical background in toxicology, and the IARC apparently went to pains to avoid references to his affiliation with the EDF. Moreover, the IARC’s conclusion seems to have been preordained:

“The IARC study rejected thousands of documents on glyphosate that had industry involvement and based their decision on carcinogenicity on the basis of eight studies (rejecting a further six because they did not like their conclusions).“

The lead author of the report, Kathryn Guyton, gave a speech in 2014 in which she stated that herbicide studies slated for 2015 showed indications of a link to cancer. Just how did she know, so far ahead of time? And then there’s this revelation:

“According to the observer document, the glyphosate meeting started with the participants being told to rule out the possibility of classifying the substance as non-carcinogenic.“

Zaruk believes there is internal pressure for the IARC study to be retracted. The organization has suffered a great loss of credibility in the scientific community over the report. In addition, WHO has remained neutral thus far, but they are expected to address the issue this month.

Zaruk and Julie Kelly provide a more succinct summary of the issues in “The Facebook Age of Science at The World Health Organization” at National Review. The suggestion made in the title seems to be that WHO’s decision might be swayed by public pressure, measured by Facebook “likes” by the superstitious, such as unknowing David Wolfe devotees, rather than science:

“Environmentalists and organic companies tout phony studies claiming that glyphosate is found in everything from breast milk to bagels. … Meanwhile, farmers who use glyphosate to protect their crops and boost yields are caught in the crossfire. Even if glyphosate is banned, they will need to use another herbicide, probably more toxic, because the romantic notion of hand-weeding millions of acres of crops is promoted only by those who have never done it.“

I’ll keep using Monsanto’s Roundup, thanks! Or a competitive brand of glyphosate. To close, here’s a quote from Matt Ridley’s Rational Optimist blog on the embrace of pseudoscience at the IARC and elsewhere (including social media):

“Science, humanity’s greatest intellectual achievement, has always been vulnerable to infection by pseudoscience, which pretends to use the methods of science, but actually subverts them in pursuit of an obsession. Instead of evidence-based policymaking, pseudoscience specialises in policy-based evidence making. Today, this infection is spreading.“

Postscript: On May 16, WHO announced that glyphosate is “unlikely to cause cancer in people via dietary exposure.” Here is a Q&A from WHO regarding its assessment, explaining that it is based on risk as opposed to mere hazard, upon which the earlier IARC report was based. This is good news!

 

The Gains From Traits: GMOs Bring Welfare Gains

08 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by pnoetx in Biotechnology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Biology Fortified, Biotechnology, Conflict of Interest, crony capitalism, EU GMO Research, Facebook, GE Pharmaceuticals, genetic engineering, Genetic Food Progress, GMO Labelling, GMO Safety, GMO Skepti-Forum, GMOs, Industry-Funded Research, Insulin and GMOs, Julie Kelly, Libertarianism and GMOs, Marc Brazeau, Multi-Generational Studies, Robert Wenzel

GMO-Right Genes
For about 30 years I have injected analog human insulin, produced by GMO E. coli bacteria, directly into my tissue. And I feel great, as do many other Type I diabetics who benefit from the advance this offers over earlier insulins made with pork and beef insulin crystals. Quite simply, I have the wrong genes. Those bad genes enabled my immune system to destroy the insulin-producing cells I needed to stay alive. At first, that necessitated the use of a faulty substitute, but later, an organism was created in a lab with the right gene to produce the powerful analog insulin I use now.

There are many other genetically-engineered pharmaceutical products on the market today, and more are coming. Julie Kelly discusses some of these developments in “The March of Genetic Food Progress” (if gated, Google “wsj Julie Kelly Genetic”). One in particular is an egg laid by a GM chicken that treats:

“… a rare and potentially fatal disorder called lysosomal acid lipase deficiency. The chicken… produces eggs with an enzyme that replaces a faulty human enzyme, addressing the underlying cause of the disease.“

She also writes of GM piglets that resist a viral respiratory disease. Her article mentions a few promising new GMOs foods in the pipeline. In a Sacred Cow Chips post in July 2015, “Nice Splice: New & Old GMO Varieties Blossom“, I quoted William Saletan on a large number of new GMOs, which I repeat here:

“… drought-tolerant corn, virus-resistant plums, non-browning apples, potatoes with fewer natural toxins [and fewer carcinogens when fried], and soybeans that produce less saturated fat. … virus-resistant beans, heat-tolerant sugarcane, salt-tolerant wheat, disease-resistant cassava, high-iron rice, and cotton that requires less nitrogen fertilizer. … high-calcium carrots, antioxidant tomatoes, nonallergenic nuts, bacteria-resistant oranges, water-conserving wheat, corn and cassava loaded with extra nutrients, and a flaxlike plant that produces the healthy oil formerly available only in fish.“

GMO foods enhance farm productivity, reduce waste, conserve land, improve the environment and provide better nutrition. They offer solutions to a variety of human problems that are otherwise out-of-reach.

Anti-GMO activists have smeared all of these GMO crops and even GM insulin as unsafe, but they base their claims on shoddy “research” or willful misinterpretation of research. To scare-monger people with diseases like diabetes is repugnant. Decades of experience have proven the safety of modern insulin products. Those negative claims about insulin arose from a paper reviewed here, which had a different research purpose and did not even mention GMO-produced insulin.

GMOs have been in the food supply to some extent for over 25 years. There is no shortage of high-quality, independent, peer-reviewed research proving the safety of GMOs in various contexts, including multi-generational studies for GMO animal feeds. Here is a review of GMO safety and environmental research funded by the EU. Another review of 10 years of safety research found that:

“The scientific research conducted so far has not detected any significant hazards directly connected with the use of genetically engineered crops.”

An excellent post by Marc Brazeau on the Biology Fortified blog, “About Those Industry Funded GMO Studies“, covers a variety of research demonstrating GMO safety for humans, livestock, honey bees, and invertebrates. As the title suggests, Brazeau also probes the question of financial or professional conflict of interest, industry funding and their alleged impact on GMO research. Favorable GMO research is often condemned by activists on this basis. The “industry shill” argument is often invoked by activists to dismiss positive results regardless of the experimental rigor involved. Brazeau reviews some research on these questions, and notes the following:

“… where compositional studies are concerned … the company has already performed in-house studies. They are contracting independent scientists to confirm their findings. This is going to skew the results of the sample towards industry favorable study outcomes. This doesn’t mean the studies were suspect. They were just more likely to result in a favorable outcome to begin with. If the in-house study had an unfavorable outcome in compositional assessment or other tests, then that project would be stopped and it’s back to the drawing board for a new project. There is no need for follow up testing by outside independent researchers. That’s a big reason why so many studies … will produce favorable results.“

I highly recommend the GMO Skepti-Forum on Facebook as a site on which informed (and usually civil) debate takes place on GMOs. Many of the discussants are scientists actively involved in GMO research. It’s a go-to location for me when investigating on-line memes that reference GMO research.

Finally, Robert Wenzel posts some thoughts regarding “Libertarianism and GMOs“. His position on GMOs mirrors my own. He asserts that individuals have a choice about whether to consume GMOs; they are capable of finding alternatives without imposing restrictions the behavior of others who wish to avail themselves of the benefits or are unconcerned about alleged risks. In fact, the benefits often include affordability and safety. Wenzel argues that this position is consistent with the non-aggression principle, the philosophical anchor of Libertarianism.

Some libertarians object to Wenzel’s defense of biotechnology based on the crony capitalism that undoubtedly benefits the biotech industry, as well as his opposition to GMO labelling. There are certainly ties between the large biotech firms and regulators, but that is no reason to condemn the technology. Labelling proponents start from the faulty premise that there is something inherently harmful about consuming GMOs. Their solution is to impose costs on others, while they are already free to purchase their food from purveyors who offer non-GMO assurances. Hence, the argument that forced labelling represents a form of aggression.

 

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