Genetically Modified Crops Are Safe

Crops created through genetic engineering are as safe to eat as crops developed through traditional plant-breeding methods, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel.

The panel could find no link between consumption of genetically modified crops and rates of cancer, kidney disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, celiac disease, food allergies or autism, the report stated.

“We compared the patterns in the U.S. and Canada to the patterns in the U.K. and E.U. (European Union), because in those countries people are not eating genetically engineered foods,” said panel chairman Fred Gould, a professor of agriculture at North Carolina State University. “We did not see a difference [in health risks] in those patterns.”

Because of this, there is “no justification for labeling for food safety purposes” any produce in the supermarket as a genetically modified product, said committee member Michael Rodemeyer, an expert on food and biotechnology who is retired from the University of Virginia.

Genetically engineered crops have been planted on about 12% of the world’s total cropland, the experts found.

The 388-page report, requested by the National Academies to review the scientific evidence, represented an attempt to clear up a “confusing landscape for the public and policy makers.” Gould said.

The creation of new crops through genetic manipulation is something that predates modern laboratory genetic tinkering, noted Joan Salge Blade, as spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She cited the tangelo, which is a crossbreed between a tangerine and a grapefruit.