The Real Truth About Health Free 10 Day Conference

Topic: GMOS and the Fight to Save Our Food Supply

Location: The Hilton Hotel, 598 Broad Hollow Road, Melville, NY

Date of Meeting: Monday, February 5^th, 2018, from 4 – 6:30 PM

Sponsor: Hippocrates Health Institute, Kingdome Greenhouses, Foods Alive Plant-Based Health Foods, and The Sprout House Sprouting Seeds

Names of Speakers: Mark Schapiro, Andrew Kimbrell, Mckay Jenkins, Jeffrey M. Smith, and Sheldon Krimsky, Ph.D.

Credentials of Speakers:

• Mark Schapiro– An investigative journalist and published author. His most recent book, “SEEDS OF RESISTANCE: The Struggle of Our Food”, examines the companies in control of the seeds to deal with climate change disturbances, such as the changing conditions for growing food, and the global movement for change that would give control over food back to the public. He is a former Senior Correspondent at the Center for Investigative Reporting, and currently lectures at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He has received awards for his work in environmental journalism on climate change and toxic chemicals from the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and more.
• Andrew Kimbrell– A public interest attorney, public speaker, activist, and author. He is the founder and executive director of the Center for Food Safety, director of the Center for Technology Assessment in San Francisco, co-founder of Foundation Earth, and president of the Board of Humane Farm Animal Care that administers the Certified Humane label. His work as an attorney has led to several victories for food safety advocates, including the mandatory regulation of greenhouse gases and their impact on climate change by the EPA, the required adoption of new food safety regulations by the FDA, the maintenance of organic standards integrity, and the ruling that DNA cannot be patented. He is an advocate for regenerative forms of agriculture and organic policies. He was given a spot on the Utne Reader’s “List of the Worlds’ Leading 100 Visionaries” and The Guardian’s “50 People Most Likely to Save the Planet.”
• Mckay Jenkins– A published author of several books that focus on people and the natural world, with degrees from Amherst, Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a PhD in English from Princeton. His most recent book, “Food Fight: GMOs and the Future of the American Diet”, explores GMO safety, sustainability, potential ability to feed the growing world population, and the hazards of the industrialized agriculture system that accompanies them. He is currently the professor of English at Cornelius Tilghman, and the professor of Journalism and Environmental Humanities Award at the University of Delaware.
• Jeffrey M. Smith– An international bestselling author, award winning filmmaker, and Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology. He is considered the leading spokesperson on the health dangers of GMOs and the leading consumer advocate for the promotion of healthier non-GMO choices. His research has focused on how biotech companies continuously put public and environmental health at risk by misleading legislators and safety officials, the use of safety assessments based on outdated science and false assumptions being conducted by the FDA and regulators worldwide, and the reason genetically engineered foods should be the nation’s top food safety priority. His 2012 feature-length documentary, Genetic Roulette – The Gamble of Our Lives, links GMO food to U.S. health problems that have become much more prevalent since the introduction of GMOs, including toxic and allergic reactions, infertility, and digestive disorders. He is the founder and current executive director of The Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), considered the most comprehensive source of information regarding GMO health risk to consumers, policy makers, and healthcare professionals. The goal of IRT’s educational programs is to convince shoppers to stop buying GMO brand foods, eventually creating a tipping point of consumer rejection, so the food industry takes them off the market nationwide.
• Sheldon Krimsky, Ph.D.– The Lenore Stern Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tuft’s University and an adjunct professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Tufts School of Medicine. He is a published author and has had over 200 papers and reviews published in peer-reviewed journals, the current focus of which is the role of science in public and environmental policy, social theories of risk, biotechnology, and chemicals in the environment. He is currently an Elected fellow of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of AAAS, a member of the Board of Directors of the Council for Responsible Genetics, and a member of the editorial board of seven journals.

The goal of the panel was to help the audience understand GM technology, learn ways to protect themselves, and clarify the confusing and conflicting information about GMOs. By posing the following questions, the moderator facilitated discussions on the impact of GMOs and controversies surrounding them amongst the panelists: (1) How did you become interested in GMOs and why do you feel it is so important to focus on this subject and provide information to the general public? (2) Are biotech companies creating GMO seeds so they can better feed the developing world? (3) Do GMO crops mean that we can use less pesticides to grow them? (4) Are the corn pesticides used to grow GMOs becoming less effective over time, and what is the significance of this? Are we on the verge of creating weeds that are resistant to the herbicides which will require us to use even more and stronger pesticides? (5) President Trump is generally against regulation and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency is a climate change denier, which has created an atmosphere of anti-regulation, leaving a lot of people worried that the technology of GMO crops will proceed unchecked. If the technology of GMO crops does proceed unchecked, will we see the contamination of the world’s food supply and what exactly would that mean? (6) To date, do any GMOs on the market deliver higher intrinsic yields than the natural crops from which they were derived both consistently and significantly higher intrinsic yields, and how does this compare to natural breeding? (7) What do you think of the statement made by the biotech proponents that millions of people in the U.S. have been eating GM food for a decade and no one has gotten sick? (8) How many peer-reviewed studies on the safety of GM crops have been done on animals and how many on humans? And how is the quality of the studies that have been done? (9) Are there differences in the nutritional profile of GMO crops versus their conventionally grown counterparts? (10) Aren’t scientists and universities honest, and if so wouldn’t they tell us if GMOs or the chemicals to grow them were bad for our health and bad for the planet? (11) What are the concerns regarding genetically engineered insects, animals, trees, and fish, and have they been released anywhere? The main point of the panelists answers was that GMO food is a danger to our health – they contested biotech industry claims that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe to eat, implying that every bite of a GM food is a gamble.

I think this was definitely a biased presentation – all the panelists are anti-GMO and the moderator introduced the panelists as, “the most accurate source of information on GMOs on the planet. They have no agenda, they’re not in the seed business, they don’t own anything related, they are just truth seekers who are on the publics side and have chosen to use their time to fight so the public gets the truth.” The panelists did use information from specific peer-reviewed studies throughout the discussions, but they didn’t did not mention supporting studies for every single piece of information given. They also used a lot of information from their published works. Despite the obvious bias of the panel, I still learned a lot about GM technology and GMOs, including what they are, why they were created, the potential consequences of the government’s anti-regulation attitude, and the negative impact of GM technology and GMOs on environmental and public health which the biotech industry denies.

The panelists delivered an engaging, easy to understand, panel on GM technology that successfully met the stated goals of the meeting. They provided simplified explanations for abstract concepts, and spoke clearly, demonstrating passion and an in-depth knowledge of the topic. The moderator kept the discussion moving forward, making sure the panelists were not answering one question the entire time. I think the only thing I would have done differently if I were presenting such a meeting would be to include one or two pro-GMO panelists. Including people from both sides of the issue would make the presentation more balanced and probably result in more dynamic discussions.

There weren’t any refreshments served for this specific talk. The conference did schedule a book signing with free vegan pizza from 3 Brothers Pizza Café on the same day, but it took place in the middle of the panel, so I didn’t get a chance to try any.

Applies to: CRDN 1.4: Evaluate emerging research for application in nutrition and dietetics practice, CRDN 1.6: Incorporate critical-thinking skills in overall practice, CRDN 2.2: Demonstrate professional writing skills in preparing professional communications, CRDN 2.9: Participate in professional and community organizations