Meet the Scientific “Experts” Who Are Saying GMO Foods are Safe

Third-party experts, aka cor­po­rate shills

When cor­po­ra­tions such as Philip Morris or Monsanto don’t have actual facts on their side, they have to resort to “third-party experts” to speak on their behalf. While the name implies no obvi­ous ties to either side, it doesn’t take much dig­ging to uncover the bias of the sci­en­tific experts for No on 37.

Enter Henry Miller, a physi­cian and mol­e­c­u­lar biol­o­gist who recently penned an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle claim­ing (among other mis­lead­ing state­ments) that, “Americans have con­sumed more than 3 tril­lion serv­ings of food with genet­i­cally engi­neered ingredients—with not a sin­gle doc­u­mented ill effect.”

This state­ment is about as rel­e­vant as say­ing that genet­i­cally engi­neered food does not cause her­pes. No one has been look­ing for either effect.

Miller also mis­rep­re­sented the posi­tions of the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the National Academy of Sciences by claim­ing these groups “and other respected med­ical and health orga­ni­za­tions all con­clude that genet­i­cally engi­neered foods are safe.”

Actually, the American Medical Association called on the Food and Drug Administration to require “pre-market sys­temic safety assess­ments of these foods as a pre­ven­tive mea­sure to ensure the health of the pub­lic.” Currently, there is no pre-market safety test­ing for genet­i­cally engi­neered food.

This week, Miller co-authored an op-ed on Forbes.com oppos­ing Proposition 37, which con­tains numer­ous addi­tional decep­tions. For exam­ple, that the FDA “fol­lowed the sci­ence and declined to require spe­cial label­ing for genet­i­cally engi­neered foods.” But as I have explained, FDA’s action was the result of heavy-duty lob­by­ing by Monsanto.

So who is this Henry Miller and what makes him such an expert? Currently a “senior research fel­low” at the Hoover Institution (a con­ser­v­a­tive think tank), he spent 15 years at the FDA as an out­spo­ken advo­cate of GMOs. So much so that he became the agency’s found­ing direc­tor of the Office of Biotechnology. His past includes ties to the noto­ri­ous indus­try front group the American Council on Science and Health, which was fea­tured in the 2000 book, Trust Us, We’re Experts, an exposé on how cor­po­ra­tions dis­tort science.

In a 2004 arti­cle crit­i­cal of the pre­cau­tion­ary prin­ci­ple (a con­cept in place in many other parts of the world that pro­motes chem­i­cal test­ing before mar­ket approval), Miller explained: “A large num­ber of peo­ple in poor nations have food aller­gies. Biotechnology can remove the aller­gens … so peo­ple in devel­op­ing coun­tries can enjoy some of these foods.” Heartwarming. Never mind the sci­en­tific evi­dence that some GMO foods can actu­ally pro­mote aller­gic reactions.

Miller also has ties to the tobacco indus­try. According to this 1994 indus­try newslet­ter Miller helped write the found­ing prin­ci­ples for “The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition”—a now-defunct front group cre­ated by Phillip Morris that tried to dis­credit research link­ing tobacco to can­cer and heart dis­ease, espe­cially among office work­ers and chil­dren liv­ing with smok­ing parents.

Pediatrician pro­mot­ing Coke and Burger King?

Monsanto and friends didn’t stop there in pro­mot­ing sci­en­tific experts with dubi­ous cre­den­tials. On the No on 37 web­site are sev­eral video inter­views with physi­cians, each one pro­claim­ing the safety of GMO foods, includ­ing one Ronald Kleinman, dressed in his author­i­ta­tive white coat. But how much author­ity should we give a doc­tor who also presents webi­nars for Coca-Cola on children’s health?

At first blush, his cre­den­tials cer­tainly sound impressive:

• Physician in Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children
• Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Chief of the Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit
• Charles Wilder Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School

Mass General and Harvard? No won­der Coca-Cola hired him. Among the “most com­mon mis­per­cep­tions among par­ents” Dr. Kleinman promises to clear up on behalf of the soda giant are “the safety … of sugar, arti­fi­cial col­ors and non­nu­tri­tive sweet­en­ers in children’s diets.” Translation: Coke is good for kids.

Dr. Kleinman is no stranger to shilling for Big Food, nor is he even ashamed of it. According to his bio with Massachusetts General Hospital, he also con­sults for the Grain Food Foundation, Beech Nut, Burger King, and General Mills. Also, accord­ing to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Kleinman served as a paid expert wit­ness for Gerber when the com­pany was sued for decep­tive adver­tis­ing, as well as con­tributed to a children’s brochure enti­tled “Variety’s Mountain” pro­duced by the Sugar Association.

If you were look­ing for a pedi­a­tri­cian, would you take your child to an MD that is work­ing for Coke, Burger King, and the sugar lobby? Then why would you believe what that same doc­tor has to say about the safety and label­ing of genet­i­cally engi­neered food?

Finally, all of the videos posted to the No on 37 web­site are “adapted” from the International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC), yet another indus­try front group, which I wrote about last year when they hosted a panel designed to dis­pel our silly fears about pes­ti­cides at the American Dietetic Association’s annual meeting.

IFIC’s job is to counter any sci­en­tific research or other infor­ma­tion that might tar­nish Big Food’s rep­u­ta­tion. For exam­ple, wor­ried about chem­i­cals in your food? IFIC will assuage those fears with this handy doc­u­ment that asks: “Do long, scary-sounding ingre­di­ent names on food labels make you won­der what’s in your food and why? This resource pro­vides the answers!”

The food indus­try is very good at pro­vid­ing answers, just not accu­rate ones. It’s no won­der the No on 37 cam­paign has to resort to rely­ing on experts with such shady rep­u­ta­tions, when polling shows the mea­sure enjoys an over­whelm­ing lead. It must be hard to find cred­i­ble experts who want con­sumers to remain in the dark about what they’re eating.

Michele Simon

Michele is a pub­lic health lawyer who has been research­ing and writ­ing about the food indus­try and food pol­i­tics since 1996. Visit her site at www.EatDrinkPolitics.com/