It’s entertaining to read the back and forth between those adamant about either side of the GMO/non-GMO argument. Although some studies have lead me to think that tinkering with nature at the gene level may have some negative long lasting effects that cannot be undone (maybe) I am not one to plaster all over social media how bad GMO’s are. Along the same lines I cannot bring myself to jumping on the same websites and claiming how these people that are for GMO are wingnuts and probably are antivaxers and all for homeopathy.

Why don’t I do either of these? Well because I took math in elementary school. Mathematically, it is simply impossible to arrive at any conclusion that claims that GMO’s are completely safe long term, for a few generations, either directly to our health or indirectly through the environment. There just hasn’t been enough time to show us. When trans fats were invented in the pre World War 2 era (a time when omega 6 vegetable oils were becoming popular also) we saw a few decades pass where more and more were consuming trans fats. Even when our governments in the ‘70’s were recommending toning it down on these deadly fats, we were still not told to completely avoid them, even though no safe level exists.

So is there a parallel here with GMO or organic food to trans fat and the lesson we learned with them? Who knows? I can tell you who knows, your great great grandson. He is the one who can tell you if millions died as a result of this global experiment with GMO’s or if anything untoward occurred with other plants, insects, or the environment that couldn’t be turned off as a result of this global experiment – or not. Either way, it is difficult to pretend to be an expert on the future especially when there is really no history to compare it to that repeats itself.

In science, the null hypothesis teaches us that there is no relationship between two things unless proven otherwise. We can stick to that and assume that anything we do that hasn’t been tested is safe. Or we can entertain the idea that trans fat has returned – maybe.