WATCH: 5 GMO Myths Busted

Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, DuPont and the other biotech giants have made GMOs into a multi-billion dollar industry and unsurprisingly have launched one of the largest PR campaigns in the history of the food industry to convince the public that their products are safe, healthy and beneficial.

This video from the Corbett Report examines the following main claims of this PR campaign and sees how they stack up to reality. We’ve included the highlights below, but watch the video for some detailed myth-busting!

5. GMOs feed more people: A comprehensive 2009 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists demonstrated that GMO soybean and corn produced no increase in intrinsic yield over conventional soybean and corn.

4. GMOs reduce pesticide use:  A 2012 paper concluded that the rise of glyphosate-resistant “superweeds” in the wake of the GMO revolution has actually increased pesticide use in the last 15 years by 183 million kilograms, or 7%.

3. There is no scientific proof of adverse health effects from GMO: In reality, the FDA doesn’t even test the safety of GMO crops. Instead, all GMO foods are assumed to be safe unless there is already evidence to the contrary. In other words, the FDA relies on self-reported data from the companies that manufacture the crops as to their safety.

2. There is no difference between genetic engineering and traditional breeding techniques:  Conventional breeding takes one strain of a certain crop, such as corn, and breeds it with another strain of that crop. Genetic engineering takes genetic material from one species, such as soil bacteria, and inserts it into a crop, such as corn.

and here’s the kicker…

1. Labeling GMOs is a bad idea…for some reason: Apparently, the public is so stupid that they don’t deserve to know what they’re eating because it would “scare them.”

WATCH THE VIDEO!

Image Source: Kevin Van Den Panhuyzen/Flickr