The advent of the Internet and social media has brought about interconnectedness that has allowed the fast flow of information in real-time.
The speed with which the world realised something untoward was happening at the tail end of 2019, and the subsequent sharing of knowledge and information on how to deal with Covid-19 is a case in point.
There was a smooth flow of information across the various regulatory jurisdictions that allowed countries to share and adopt mitigating measures.
Pockets of dissent against some of those measures notwithstanding, the public embraced and adopted the scientific and regulatory processes in place.
We trusted and deployed biological solutions to address a biological problem, with considerable success.
Contrast that scenario with that of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the difference is stark.
GM technology is a tool whose objective is to address biological challenges associated with agriculture.
However, the public perception that GMOs are unsafe is inordinately high considering the close to 30 decades of global GM technology experience.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Commission (EC), the US Food and Drug Administration and National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the Royal Society of the UK and International Science Academies, among others, have reviewed research on GM foods and found no evidence that they are harmful.
According to the European Commission, the main conclusion drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se riskier than, for example, conventional plant breeding technologies.
The WHO concludes that GM foods available on the international market are not likely to risk human health.
The NAS indicates that GM poses no health risks that cannot also arise from conventional breeding and other methods used to create new foods.
It is apparent that GMO foods are safe not because the biotech industry or some countries proclaim so but because of the overwhelming global scientific consensus on their safety for human health.
It would not be unreasonable to postulate that after 27 years if there was even the slightest iota of evidence of harm associated with GMOs anywhere in the world, it would have been identified and reported by the global scientific and regulatory community.
However, this confidence in scientific circles needs to percolate into the public domain for reassurance if GM technology is to gain universal acceptance and contribute to addressing our ever-evolving food and nutritional security challenges.
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