GMO Crops Good For You, Environment

No wonder the lefties hate them: Report: Genetically modified crops are safe, healthy, and good for the environment

Advocates for genetically modified crops depict them as a futuristic boon to humanity and the environment. Opponents call them “Frankenfoods” and demand governments ban their use. What does the data tell us? According to a new review of a large number of studies from across the spectrum, the truth falls much closer to the position of the advocates:

Genetically modified crops on the market are not only safe, but appear to be good for people and the environment, experts determined in a reportreleased Tuesday.

But the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are not just asking people to take their word for it. They’re putting the evidence up on a website so skeptics — and they know there are plenty of them — can check for themselves.

NBC News listed the main conclusions from the report, and they all look like pluses:

• There is no evidence of large-scale health effects on people from genetically modified foods
• There is some evidence that crops genetically engineered to resist bugs have benefited people by reducing cases of insecticide poisoning
• Genetically engineered crops to benefit human health, such as those altered to produce more vitamin A, can reduce blindness and deaths die to vitamin A deficiency
• Using insect-resistant or herbicide-resistant crops did not damage plant or insect diversity and in some cases increased the diversity of insects.
• Sometimes the added genes do leak out to nearby plants – a process called gene flow – but there is no evidence it has caused harm.
• In general, farmers who use GM soybean, cotton, and corn make more money but it does depend on how bad pests are and farming practices.
• GM crops do reduce losses to pests
• If farmers use insect-resistant crops but don’t take enough care, sometimes pest insects develop resistance

The “report in brief” on the website offered more details on animal and human safety . . .

Remember, it's not that they love nature, it's that they hate you.