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GMO conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories related to the production and sale of genetically modified crops and genetically modified food (referred to as genetically modified organisms or "GMOs" by activists) that have been identified by various commentators and skeptics including Michael Shermer, Mark Lynas, and Jon Entine. Generally, these conspiracy theories posit that GMOs are being knowingly and maliciously introduced into the food supply either as a means to unduly enrich agribusinesses or as a means to poison or pacify the population.

Conspiracy theories involving GMOs and their promoters have been invoked in a variety of contexts. For example, in commenting on the Séralini affair, an incident that involved the retraction of a much-criticized paper which claimed harmful effects of GMOs in lab rats, American biologist PZ Myers said that anti-GMO activists were claiming the retraction was a part of "a conspiracy to Hide the Truth™". A work seeking to explore risk perception over GMOs in Turkey identified a belief among the conservative political and religious figures who were opposed to GMOs that GMOs were "a conspiracy by Jewish Multinational Companies and Israel for world domination." Additionally, a Latvian study showed that a segment of the population believed that GMOs were part of a greater conspiracy theory to poison the population of the country.

Context

The existence of conspiracy theories relating to the fear over GMOs has been attested to by scientists, journalists, and skeptics who oppose much anti-GMO activism, but these specific conspiracy theories were also identified by political science professors Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent in their book American Conspiracy Theories thusly:

Another prototypical conspiratorial movement involves those opposed to genetically modified organisms (GMO), in essence a protest against the genetic engineering of food. Not everyone who opposes GMOs is a conspiracy theorist: reasonable people can disagree about research and fail to see small groups of people covertly working against the common good. But most visible and vocal members of this movement, however, are conspiracy theorists. They believe that genetically modified foods are a corporate plot, led by the giant multinational Monsanto, to profit off unhealthy food.

Social critic Margit Stange identifies certain arguments adopted by GMO conspiracy theorists as being part of the larger controversy surrounding the subject:

The corporate push for genetically modified food arouses great suspicion. Critics charge that GM food ("Frankenfood") is profitable to industry not only because it can be patented but because crop uniformity will eventually drive up pesticide demand. The charge that big food interests take advantage of poverty to open new markets for GM food is restated by conspiracy theorists, who describe a deliberate macroeconomic creation of food shortages in impoverished nations in order to open the door to GM food. The food industry's opposition to GM food labeling and precautionary measures fuels such suspicions.

Monsanto

A major aspect of many conspiracy theories is the fear that large agribusinesses, especially Monsanto are working to undermine the health and safety of the general public by introducing and promoting GMOs in the food supply. Some anti-GMO activists claimed that Monsanto infiltrated both the American Food and Drug Administration and the American Association for the Advancement of Science which is why the two organizations have supported the scientific evidence for the safety of the genetically engineered food available for human consumption. Jeffrey M. Smith is identified in the book American Conspiracy Theories as arguing that Monsanto has "captured" the FDA and many other countries. In the compendium Agricultural and Food Controversies, the authors who are social scientists and food scientists trace the conspiracy theory relating in particular to Monsanto back to events in the early 1990s:

There are some well-qualified dissenting scientists and a motivated group of food activists behind them, pushing back against GM food. They believe a GM crop is not substantially equivalent to traditional crops. Moreover, they believe that the FDA follows the substantial equivalence rule not because of the science, but because the FDA was corrupted by corporate influence. This is not a belief that the authors' share, but there are smart people of high character who do believe this conspiracy theory, and their side of the story deserves to be heard.

In The World According to Monsanto, author Marie-Monique Robin describes how the substantial equivalence began with a 1992 policy statement by the FDA under the leadership of a former Monsanto lawyer, who, after working in the FDA, returned to Monsanto as vice president. Her story suggests that GM regulations were the product of a revolving-door system where regulators are former and/or future employees of the company being regulated (note that some argue Monsanto wanted excess regulations to keep out competitors, but that is not Robin's story). It is not hard to imagine a company rewarding lenient regulators with a nice job, and food activists have websites listing powerful government officials and their relation to Monsanto and other corporations. If this sounds like a conspiracy theory (a term not meant as a euphemism), it is.

Vandana Shiva, an anti-agribusiness activist, is in particular known for identifying Monsanto as the major source of the conspiracy, while Bill Maher was criticized by science blogger Kyle Hill on the Scientific American website for promulgating Argumentum Ad Monsantum. According to Hill, "aking the leap from Monsanto’s business practices—whatever you may think of them—to the “dangers” of GM foods is a mistake in logical reasoning. It is akin to saying landscape paintings are potentially evil because the painter was a serial killer."

Belief that Monsanto is particularly problematic has inspired such actions as the March Against Monsanto and the singling out of Monsanto over other agribusinesses such as DuPont, Syngenta, Dow, BASF and Bayer, and has been identified as a salient feature of anti-GMO activism.

An example of Monsanto-based conspiracy theorizing were the claims by some anti-GMO activists that Monsanto banned GMOs from their cafeterias while promoting them for sale and consumption by the public.

Zika virus

In January 2016, concerns over a Zika virus outbreak were accompanied by claims first published on Reddit that the virus was being spread by a genetically modified mosquito. The fears were based in part because of a new mosquito abatement initiative led by Oxitec—male mosquitoes are genetically modified to be sterile, and released to mate with females, resulting in no offspring, thereby reducing the Aedes aegypti mosquito population that spreads tropical diseases such as Zika. The claims was identified as "unproven" by the debunking website snopes.com.

Ethical criticism

In Scholars & Rogues, an online progressive political journal, David Lambert, a development program officer for the United Nations, compared the conspiracy theories supported by some in the anti-GMO movement to those supported in the anti-vaccination movement,

Like preventable childhood diseases, malnutrition is another great moral failing of our time. GMOs such as golden rice—rice modified to contain high levels of beta carotene in order to compensate for the vitamin A deficiency which kills hundreds of thousands of children around the world and blinds many more every year—and drought resistant crops, which will become increasingly vital in the global south due to climate change, have vast potential to help those who don't shop at Whole Foods. But real progress has been stymied by the paranoid and misinformed, who clamor that GMOs, which are biologically no different than "natural" foods, are somehow poisonous. Behind it all is of course an evil corporation: Monsanto.

See also

• Big Pharma conspiracy theory

References

1. ^ Shermer, Michael. "Conspiracy Central." Scientific American 311.6 (2014): 94-94.
2. ^ Mark Lynas (29 April 2013). "Time to call out the anti-GMO conspiracy theory". marklynas.org. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
3. ^ Jon Entine (11 May 2015). "Why GMOs? Challenging anti-technology conspiracy theories". geneticliteracyproject.org. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
4. "Belated retraction of Seralini's bad anti-GMO paper". Pharyngula. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
5. Veltri, Giuseppe A.; Suerdem, Ahmet K. (2013-02-01). "Worldviews and discursive construction of GMO-related risk perceptions in Turkey". Public Understanding of Science. 22 (2): 137–154. doi:10.1177/0963662511423334. ISSN 0963-6625. PMID 23833021.
6. "SHS Web of Conferences". www.shs-conferences.org. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
7. ^ Uscinski, Joseph E.; Parent, Joseph M. (2014-08-05). American Conspiracy Theories. Oxford University Press. p. 146. ISBN 9780199351824.
8. Margit Stange (2003). Peter Knight (ed.). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 310. ISBN 978-1-57607-812-9.
9. "The Misleading War on GMOs: The Food Is Safe. The Rhetoric Is Dangerous". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
10. F. Bailey Norwood; Michelle S. Calvo-Lorenzo; Sarah Lancaster; Pascal A. Oltenacu (17 November 2014). Agricultural and Food Controversies. Oxford University Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0-19-936842-6.
11. Hill, Kyle. "Argumentum Ad Monsantum: Bill Maher and The Lure of a Liberal Logical Fallacy". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
12. Stephen D. Simpson, CFA. "Why Is Monsanto Evil, But DuPont Isn't?". Investopedia. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
13. Willy Blackmore. "Why We Shouldn't Waste Time on GMO Conspiracies". TakePart. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
14. ^ Lydia Ramsey. "A wacky conspiracy is circulating about Zika and GMOs — and it needs to stop". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
15. LaCapria, Kim. "MOSTLY FALSE: Zika Virus Caused by GMO Mosquitos". snopes. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
16. "Conspiracies against progress: why the rise of the modern conspiracy theory should concern us all". Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues. Retrieved 2016-02-02.

• Conspiracy theories
• Genetically modified organisms
• Monsanto