Every day there are hundreds of mainstream
articles written for the public regarding genetically modified organisms found
in food. Unfortunately, an appalling number of them are spreading false or
scientifically unsupported information. One example of this is an article
titled "One Morning at the Farmer's Market" written by Kelly Dorfman
for the Huffington Post. The article was posted on their website September 4,
2014 which just goes to show how readily available incorrect information is for
public consumption.
I'd first like to take a look at the person who
is writing the article. Her name is Kelly Dorfman and she is a clinical
nutritionist with a master’s degree in science. Where she got her education is
not listed on any websites, but it is evident she received her masters over 15
years ago. At first glance she may seem to be a reliable source; after all she
is a licensed nutritionist so you'd hope she would know what she is talking
about when it comes to food. However, she is definitely not an expert. She has
no education or even experience working with the genetic engineering of crops.
With this lack of practical knowledge I am skeptical to take anything she says
to heart, or stomach for that matter. Also since she received her degree around
the same time GMOs were first introduced, it could be possible that she has
biased opinions and information. GMOs have greatly evolved since their first
introduction in the late 1990's.
Kelly Dorfman
Now, let's take a look at the article itself. I
have posted the link to the website at the bottom of the post. She starts the article by describing a
personal experience she had at her local farmer's market. This leads me to
believe that her intentions behind the article are more of a personal issue
rather than a general desire to spreading accurate knowledge for the
public.
In the second paragraph she states that "while the new genetically enhanced stuff
is beautiful to look at, studies suggest eating it disrupts the gut
ecosystem." The study she is referring to was done in Germany and
discusses a bacterium that was affecting cattle, not humans. She then goes on
to quote an article from Harvard School of Public Health that was published in
1998, over 15 years ago. Science is too rapidly progressing and changing to be
referencing articles so old. She then boldly states "inflammatory bowel
disease incidence has increased since the introduction of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs)." The study that she extracted this conclusion from was
extremely limited in its methods, only using veterans with Crohn's disease or
ulcerative colitis from 1998 to 2009. In order to be conclusive, a much more
advanced study with more subjects would need to be conducted to make such a
statement.
She
goes on to say that there is no proven direct link, which undermines her
arguments to begin with. However, she is correct in that respect. No scientific
studies have been done to link GMOs to a disruption in the gut ecosystem. It is
almost scientifically impossible to conduct long term effects studies on
humans. The rest of the article discusses a conversation she had with a vendor
and another personal experience she had.
Her
lack of expertise in the field, her obvious biased opinions, the lack of
useful scientific evidence, and her statement that there is no direct link make
it difficult for me to call her a reliable source for information regarding
genetically modified foods. There are many other, more reliable sources for
your information which I will post about in upcoming chapters.
Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-dorfman/one-morning-at-the-farmers-market_b_5748900.html
(Articles she refers to are hyperlinked within the original
article)
