A short but important endorsement of GMO food by an M.D.-geneticist

By ACSH Staff — Jan 29, 2014
Dr. Shoa L. Clarke admits he was a vocal opponent of GMOs back when he was a young proto-scientist and activist. But once he began to study genetics, he learned the facts about bioengineering and

Screen Shot 2013-11-26 at 4.20.01 PMDr. Shoa L. Clarke admits he was a vocal opponent of GMOs back when he was a young proto-scientist and activist. But once he began to study genetics, he learned the facts about bioengineering and biotech/GMO food, and he realized he was all wrong.

Now, more than a decade later, I am a physician and a biologist with a doctorate in genetics, and it s clear to me that I was wrong. The motivation behind GMOs is simple. We need a way to provide good nutrition for the world s population.

His main example involves Golden Rice, the GMO-rice with a gene to produce plenty of vitamin A precursors, a staple food that would do much to alleviate the widespread lack of that vitamin and the millions of kids who go blind because of it the hundreds of thousands of premature dead because of it. Unfortunately, the pervasive, superstitious and agenda-driven opposition to all GMO products and particularly Golden Rice (led by Greenpeace) has kept this miracle off the market for over a decade.

Good job, Dr. Clarke. Let s hope his friends back home in Maine hear and listen to his wise counsel and revoke their unscientific and destructive attempt to scare people away from GMO food.