WHO reaffirms safety of genetically modified foods

The debate on the safety of genetically modified foods reached an important milestone, this week, when the World Health Organization (WHO), reaffirmed their safety. In fact, WHO said GM foods can contribute to enhancing human health and development.

These findings are contained in a report of a study conducted by eminent scientists from both developed and developing countries.

The study’s report, Modern food biotechnology, human health and development, allays widely held fears that GM foods pose health risks to consumers.

“To date, the consumption of GM foods has not caused any known negative health effects,” notes the report.

The report further recognizes the gains - economical, nutritional and ecological, GM crops have made in the farming community, all over the world. “GM foods can increase yield, food quality and the diversity of foods which can be grown in a given area,” says the report.

This report presents an objective and scientific evaluation of GM foods. Its findings are rooted in sound science. It has relied on universally accepted research methodologies to reach its conclusions. Since this study fulfills every aspect of scientific inquiry, its findings, should, therefore, be the only foundation for future debate on genetically modified food.

WHO, itself, is a respected custodian of global health. Since its formation in 1948, this public health agency, has executed this task with decorum and integrity. This report, whose objectivity is unquestionable, only reflects WHO’s long-held values of openness and credibility.

WHO’s endorsement of genetically modified food only echoes what other UN agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP), have found in the past. These agencies have been forthright in appealing to poor countries to adopt modern farming technology, to alleviate hunger, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their well-meaning efforts, sometimes, have been sabotaged by opponents of genetically modified food. In such unfortunate situations pseudo science takes the place of proven scientific facts. Indoctrination and scare tactics, instead of educating these vulnerable groups become the norm.

The WHO report proposes that GM foods be examined from many standpoints -social and ethical, health and environmental. This calls for a sober debate about GM foods.

Now that WHO’s edict on GM food is out, isn’t it the time to play by the rules? Shouldn’t all parties to the GM debate treat the WHO report as the only guide to their arguments?

Perhaps, they should heed the advice rendered by Dr. Jorgen Schludt, Director of WHO’s Food Safety Department during the launch of this report. Recognizing that the world stood to gain the health and nutritional improvements of GM foods, Dr. Schludt called for concerted efforts to help poor countries research how they can control and exploit the introduction of GM products for the benefit of their people.
The biotech industry has been in the forefront in promoting biotech-related capacity building programs in developing countries.

While anti-GM activists have been busy mobilizing poor farmers to demonstrate against new farming technologies, the biotech industry, to its credit, continue to educate the world on potential benefits of modern biotechnology. Perhaps, time is now ripe for them to channel the billions of dollars they spend in this kind of activism to more productive agri-biotech programs.