Chapter 3

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)