GMO foods safe to eat
REGARDING claims by Rose Layard that fish fed GMO food will, when consumed, kill other wild life and humans as GMOs cause cancer and chronic diseases, and the massive increase in cancer is very much to do with GMOs ("Genetically modified food a huge threat to public", September 29), genetically modified food being a huge threat to the public is scientifically and medically unsubstantiated utter rubbish.
A new scientific review by animal scientist Alison van Eenennaam, at the University of California, Davis, concluded the performance and health of food producing animals consuming genetically engineered (GE) feed, first introduced 18 years ago, has been comparable to that of animals consuming non-GE feed. No differences have been detected in the nutritional makeup of the meat, milk, eggs or other food products derived from animals fed GE feed.
The review is corroborated by an earlier study reported in Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews in 2000. This has also been endorsed by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
There is no better proof than the South African situation. According to the Maize Trust, in the period 2000 to 2012, a GM accumulated maize crop of 40 million tons was produced in South Africa.
This grain was consumed each year by 50 million South Africans, 800 million broilers, 1.4 million cattle at feedlots and three million pigs slaughtered at formal abattoirs, all consumed by humans, without any medically or scientifically substantiated adverse effects to humans, the environment or animals.
If GMOs cause cancer then more than half the world's population would be dead by now after 18 years of GM crops.
Last year a record 18 million farmers in 27 countries, on all six continents where more than half the world's population lives, planted 175.2 million ha of GM crops without as much as a tummy ache complaint.
The Royal Society of London, one of the world's leading scientific institutions, said in a 1998 report: "There is no reason to doubt the safety of GM food." (Eight worldwide academies of science concurred.)
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF) in partnership with the German Academies and Humanities and the network of African Science Academies concluded: "Food derived from GM plants poses no greater risk than conventional food. On the contrary, in some cases food from GM plants appear to be superior with respect to health." (ASSAF 2010 study)
Layard is not a scientist, agronomist, geneticist or nutritionist who has conducted any scientific trials with GMOs and therefore is not qualified to tell people what to eat and farmers what to plant.
Hans Lombard, independent agricultural analyst and consultant to the agribiotech industry
