6. Treating food with radiation causes cancer.
Wikimedia Commons
Many people believe that subjecting food to radiation somehow makes it radioactive, and therefore causes cancer when ingested. The FDA and USDA know this to be untrue; that’s why they approved this scientific food process a long time ago in order to decrease instances of severe food poisoning and increase a food’s longevity.
The radiation kills bacteria on food, and then passes right through — it doesn’t get trapped within our strawberry and lurk there waiting to silently kill us. In fact, the World Health Organization believes that irradiation is as important a discovery as pasteurization (which people were also extremely skeptical of at first), but the outcry from people who believe irradiation is inherently dangerous keeps it from being implemented on a grand scale in America.
7. The terms “GMO” and “organic” are basically opposites.
CIAT/Flickr
In reality, “GMO” describes a product, and “organic” describes a process. Despite one arbitrary clause in the USDA labeling system, there’s no reason that the two can’t be used in conjunction with one another. They even have something in common, believe it or not: One of the widest-used organic insecticides called the Bt toxin (yes, something with the word “toxin” is used to produce something that’s organic) has also been spliced into genetically modified seeds — and produces the same effect without the pesticide leaking into nearby waterways.
Some organic farming practices such as crop rotation and composting have been shown to be better for local environments; if those effects could be combined with the boosted yields, nutrition, and pest resistance of genetically modified crops, we could come to a synergistic compromise that would benefit both people and the environment.
Unfortunately that’s unlikely to happen when each side of the GMO debate would rather spend their time and money attacking each other to the point of hypocrisy.
For more of our myth debunking series, read about vaccines and Planned Parenthood.
