A broad community of independent scientific researchers and scholars challenges recent claims of a consensus
over the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the following joint statement, the claimed consensus
is shown to be an artificial construct that has been falsely perpetuated through diverse fora. Irrespective of
contradictory evidence in the refereed literature, as documented below, the claim that there is now a consensus on
the safety of GMOs continues to be widely and often uncritically aired. For decades, the safety of GMOs has been a
hotly controversial topic that has been much debated around the world. Published results are contradictory, in part
due to the range of different research methods employed, an inadequacy of available procedures, and differences
in the analysis and interpretation of data. Such a lack of consensus on safety is also evidenced by the agreement of
policymakers from over 160 countries - in the UN’s Cartagena Biosafety Protocol and the Guidelines of the Codex
Alimentarius - to authorize careful case-by-case assessment of each GMO by national authorities to determine
whether the particular construct satisfies the national criteria for ‘safe’. Rigorous assessment of GMO safety has been
hampered by the lack of funding independent of proprietary interests. Research for the public good has been
further constrained by property rights issues, and by denial of access to research material for researchers unwilling
to sign contractual agreements with the developers, which confer unacceptable control over publication to the
proprietary interests.
The joint statement developed and signed by over 300 independent researchers, and reproduced and published
below, does not assert that GMOs are unsafe or safe. Rather, the statement concludes that the scarcity and
contradictory nature of the scientific evidence published to date prevents conclusive claims of safety, or of lack of
safety, of GMOs. Claims of consensus on the safety of GMOs are not supported by an objective analysis of the
refereed literature
