Claire Robinson - GMO Myths and Truths: A Citizens Guide to the Evidence on the Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Crops and Foods

The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the individual authors and do not represent the official policy, position, or views of any organizations or institutions that the authors may be affiliated with.

GM crops and foods have been consistently promoted as a way to produce higher yields with less inputs, reduce pesticide use, make farming easier and more profitable, produce more nutritious foods, and meet the challenges of climate change.

But the evidence that has emerged since their introduction in 1996 paints a very different picture. Scientific research and real-world farming experience shows that GM crops have not delivered on these promises. They have not increased yields or sustainably reduced toxic chemical inputs. In reality they have presented farmers with the new challenges of controlling herbicide-resistant superweeds and Bt toxin-resistant super-pests. GM crops are no less dependent on artificial fertilizers than any other chemically grown crop. They are not as safe to eat as conventionally bred crops. They provide no solution to the major challenges of our time: climate change, the energy crisis, and world hunger.

The GM approach treats genes as isolated units of information with predictable outcomes. But this approach is flawed. Gene organization within the DNA of any organism is not random and gene function is a complex, interconnected, and coordinated network, consisting of layer upon layer of molecular systems.

GM is based on an outdated understanding of genetics and is destined to fail. It is beyond the ability of GM to deliver anything but the simplest of properties such as single-gene herbicide tolerance. GM is simply not up to the task of delivering safe, productive, and resilient food production systems.

Our modern understanding of genetics tells us that we need to take a holistic approach to crop development that preserves gene organization and regulation, rather than disrupting it, as GM does. The way to safely and effectively generate crops with complex desirable properties such as higher yield, drought tolerance, and disease resistance is through natural breeding, helped where useful by marker assisted selection.

GMO proponents often argue that if GMOs were as unimpressive and problematic as we suggest, farmers would not plant them.

The simple answer to this argument is that while some farmers do plant GM crops, the vast majority do not. Non-GM farming is by far the dominant model. Industry figures from 2013 show that 18 million farmers grow GM crops in 27 countries worldwide: thats less than 1% of the farming population. Around 92% of all GMOs are grown in just six countries, and these countries mainly grow just four GM crops: soy, maize, oilseed rape (canola) and cotton. Eighty-eight percent of arable land across the globe remains GM-free.

What is more, in 2014, industry figures revealed that GM crop planting had fallen in industrialized countries for the first time since the technology was commercialized in 1996. Clive James, head of the industry group ISAAA, said the industry now sees the developing world as the target for GMO industry expansion.

But as the evidence and case studies presented in this report make clear, it is irresponsible to use farmers in the developing world as guinea pigs for experimental GM crops that the majority of people do not want to eat.

For two decades, GMO proponents have dominated the political and media discussion on food and agriculture. Many of our agricultural research institutes and universities accept GMO industry funding and obligingly pursue a narrow GM-focused agenda, at the expense of proven effective agroecological solutions that focus on improving soil quality and maintaining crop diversity and health.

Yet the public, the vast majority of whom do not want to eat GM foods, is unconvinced. It has become common for pro-GMO lobbyists to try to shut down resistance to GM food and agriculture by saying that the debate is over, that science has shown that GMOs are safe and beneficial, and that it is time to move on and accept them.

We agree with only one aspect of this argument. It is indeed time to move on, but in the opposite direction to the one promoted by the GMO proponents. The scientific evidence presented in this report shows that the hypothetical benefits of GM crops and foods are not worth the known risks.

It is time to face up to what the evidence tells us about GMOs and stop pretending that GMOs can do anything that non-GM agriculture and good farming cant do far better, at a fraction of the cost, and without the restrictions attached to patent ownership. In fact, patents represent the single area in which GM crops and foods outstrip non-GM. If it ever becomes as easy to patent a non-GM crop as it is to patent a GM crop, it is likely that GM crops and foods will be consigned to the dustbin of history. Agricultural genetic engineering is not a smart or useful enough technology to succeed on its own merits. It is of interest to multinational companies and their government allies as a route to patented ownership of the food supply.

Once this fact has become clear to citizens and policymakers, we hope they will throw resources and funding behind the safe, sustainable, and equitable agriculture that the world needs.

1. Friends of the Earth. Who Benefits from GM Crops? An Industry Built on Myths. Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 2014. http://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/publications/foei_who_benefits_from_gm_crops_2014.pdf.

2. Kaskey J. Modified crop plantings fall in industrialized nations. Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-13/modified-crop-plantings-fall-in-industrialiez-nations.html. Published February 13, 2014.

GMO Myths and Truths (condensed and updated third edition)
Version 1.0
A citizens guide to the evidence on the safety and efficacy of genetically modified crops and foods

Published by Earth Open Source. Third edition, Version 1.0
Second printing of the third edition: 2016

2015 Claire Robinson, Michael Antoniou, and John Fagan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or a retrieval system, without prior written permission from the authors, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in reviews.

ISBN: 978-0-9934367-1-0

Earth Open Source
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Printed in Great Britain
Distributed in the U.S. by Chelsea Green Publishing

First edition of GMO Myths and Truths published in Great Britain in 2012 by Earth Open Source
Second edition of GMO Myths and Truths published in Great Britain in 2014 by Earth Open Source

Trademark acknowledgements:
Agrisure Artesian TM is a registered trademark of Syngenta.
Flavr Savr TM is a registered trademark of Calgene and Monsanto Company.
Roundup and Roundup Ready are registered trademarks of Monsanto Company.
VISTIVE is a registered trademark of Monsanto Company.

The authors would like to thank the many scientists and experts who have contributed to the GMO Myths and Truths project from its inception in 2010, as well as all those who have read the material and put it to use.

Dr John Fagan and Dr Michael Antoniou received no financial recompense for their work on the project.