Food and Water Watch, a national advocacy group, accuses the National Research Council of conflict of interest in its new report on GMO crops.
Tim Schwab said the council has received money from Monsanto and DuPont and allows people from those companies to sit on its boards.
“The (National Science) Academy may dispute that its extensive ties to industry have influenced its work," Schwab said. "But even setting aside the copious evidence to the contrary, the National Research Council must still contend with the appearance of conflict of interest and understand that from the public’s perspective such an appearance compromises the integrity of the NRC as a credible science-based organization.”
Fred Gould, who led the study, said there are conflicts of interest with Food and Water Watch.
“When you come up with 50 percent of our committee is influencing us from our industry and one of the people was never at any of the meetings, it’s a little bit difficult to accept that," Gould said.
Gould said Food and Water Watch motivated the researchers to have a special section on their website to address where studies were done and who funded them.
The report concludes that genetically modified crops are safe to animal and human health when consumed and that there is no conclusive evidence of cause-and-effect between GE crops and environmental problems.
Source: www.brownfieldagnews.com