From the Archives: GMO Labels Won't Make Foods Safer, Only More Expensive

Some ideas are too good to stay in the dustbin. Here's an old piece of mine I think you'll like, and there'll be another every other week.

This piece was originally published at Mercatus.

It's been estimated that 70 to 80 percent of foods eaten in the United States contain ingredients that have been genetically modified.

But labeling these foods is certainly not a food safety issue; there has never been a case of harm to people from GM products - ever. And it's also not something that the FDA can legally do right now, because there is no scientific difference between GM foods and conventional foods.

By the year 2025, the World Wildlife Fund estimates that two thirds of the world's population will confront a water shortage and ecosystems will also suffer.

One way to help mitigate this scenario is to promote the use of GM foods, which reduces the need for ploughing. This allows the soil to trap moisture and helps plants retain water.

In some cases, this will make the difference between a harvest or crop failure. Some results show crop yields increasing by 4 to 8 percent in arid conditions with others suggesting gains as much as 21 percent.

With nearly one person in every nine not having enough to eat on this planet, that's a promising start.

Another way that GM foods help us is that they use less pesticide. One study found that it reduced the quantity of pesticides by 37 percent and the cost by 39 percent. Although pesticides get a bad rap, the truth is that the trace amounts of pesticides that you find in the average diet are totally safe.

As one toxicologist put it, there are more carcinogens in a single cup of coffee than there are in all of the pesticide residue you consume in a year. And that doesn't mean that coffee will give you cancer, it means human exposure to pesticides is extremely low.

An increase in yield and a decrease in pesticide costs will lower the price of foods, and that's a good thing, particularly if you're not well off.

Read the full piece on my Substack here.