Now that the chemical companies’ media attack has begun on Initiative 522, expect to hear the refrain, “Genetically modified food is perfectly safe.”

But who says GM food is safe? The same chemical companies that told us DDT, PCBs and Dioxin were perfectly safe.

Can anyone find one long-term, double-blind, independent study showing GMOs are safe? You won’t, even at the FDA, because none were required.

The decision at the FDA to permit the introduction of GMOs into the food supply was made by Michael Taylor, a political appointee, against the objections of the FDA’s own scientists. Prior to the FDA, Taylor worked as one of the principal lawyers at Monsanto.

Conversely, all the long-term, independent animal studies–e.g., Pusztai in the U.K. (1999), Seralini in France (2008), Vlieger in the U.S. (2013) – have reported serious problems – cancer, infertility, intestinal disorders–and raised questions about the effect of GM food on human health.

Instead of heeding these warnings, the response of the companies responsible for these novel foods has been to shoot the messengers.

Consider the case of Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a well-respected scientist at the prestigious Rowett Institute in Scotland with over 300 peer-reviewed articles to his credit.

When he sounded the alarm about the foreign proteins in GM food, he was brutally and viciously attacked by the biotech industry. The industry literally tried to destroy him.

Similarly, when Seralini reported massive tumors, organ damage, and reproductive problems in his study of lab rats, the biotech industry mounted a furious attack. But Seralini countered that he had merely replicated the biotech industry’s own study in every detail but one: his ran two-years, not 90 days. In effect, the industry was attacking its own study.

If biotech corporations want us to believe that GM foods are safe, why haven’t they subjected them to long-term, independent, double-blind, animal testing before releasing them for human use?

Until that happens, let’s give everyone in this state the option to choose what kind of food they want to buy for themselves and their families. Vote yes on I-522.

Charles and Clarissa Mish

Chickadee Farm, Lopez