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NRC: No GMO health concern & No big yield jump

A comprehensive study of Genetically Engineered crops shows no evidence of negative human health effects from consuming those crops.

Fred Gould is the leader of the study released by the National Research Council, “Now, this is epidemiological data. It’s not going to find small differences. But, when somebody says that cancer rates probably have gone up two-fold, we would have seen something like that.”

Gould says the study had a surprising finding about GMO crop yields: He says it showed no dramatic increase in the overall yield increases since 1996, “We’re not saying it’s NOT happening. We know that genetically engineered crops can protect from insect damage and can contribute something to yield. But, looked at over that broader horizon, what is it doing? So, we’re very interested in that. It could be that new technologies will change that slope.”

The report looked at the impact of GE crops since the 1980s. Twenty people were involved in the review and they were challenged by a team of reviewers. More than 1-thousand articles and more than 700 comments were also taken into consideration for the final report.

The National Research Council is part of the National Academy of Sciences which some groups accuse of having a conflict of interest with Monsanto, DuPont and other crop companies. Gould said he is tired of those false allegations and it’s time for those groups to engage in discussions, not accusations.