“Altered Genes, Twisted Truth”: The Silence of Britain’s Royal Society is Deafening
In his recent book ‘Altered Genes,Twisted Truths’, US public interest attorney Steven Druker
exposes the fraudulent practices and deceptions that led to the
commercialisation of GM food and crops in the US. Not long after the
book’s release, he wrote an open letter to
the Royal Society in Britain calling on it to acknowledge and correct
the misleading and exaggerated statements that it has used to actively
promote GMOs and in effect convey false impressions.
Druker cited specific instances where members of The Royal Society
have at various times made false statements and the Society’s actions
were not objective or based on scientific reasoning but seemingly were
little more than biased and stridently pro-GMO. He argued that The Royal
Society has misrepresented the case for GMOs and has effectively
engaged in a campaign of disinformation.
The Royal Society acts as a scientific advisor to the British
government. It is a self-governing fellowship of many of the world’s
most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science,
engineering, and medicine. The Society disseminates scientific advances
through its journals. It also promotes science information and
communication with the public. The Royal Society is a prestigious
institution that feeds into policy formulation processes at national
level in the UK. The Royal Society counts. It is a very big deal.
By the mid-1990’s, Druker notes that The Royal Society had become a
partisan defender of GM foods and embraced a proactive policy on their
behalf. In pursuing this proactive policy, he argues that several
individuals holding prominent positions within the Society – and even
the Society itself – have issued misleading statements in regard to GM
foods that have created significant confusion and illegitimately
downplayed their risks. He then goes on to document specific instances
of occasions when this occurred.
