GMO’s ‘Big Tobacco’ Moment Just Happened

When paradigms shift, tyrants fall, or corporations lose their market, it is often not from some spectacular event, but by a single, humanizing display. We have just witnessed such an event during the interview of high-profile GMO advocate Patrick Moore. Additionally, this viral video has exploded in popularity giving yet another sign, along with recoiling public dollars, that genetically modified organisms are not wanted. In it, Moore does a near perfect job in less than two minutes to show the world the unempathetic, hypocritical face of the biotech/GMO industry stripped of all spin, lies, and deception.

The fall of the big tobacco companies, which operated in strikingly identical ways as the biotech/GMO industry today, was crushed in seconds by one, publically televised statement in 1994, “I believe nicotine is not addictive.” This can now be compared to Moore’s recent statement of “I do not believe that glyphosate (in Argentina) is causing increases in cancer.”

For whatever reason, Moore foolishly continues to boast about glyphosate’s (classified as a 2B carcinogen) harmless nature by offering to drink some. “I’d be happy to actually” was Moore’s reply to French investigative journalist and film maker Paul Moreira’s offer to pour him a glass. It is at this stage of the interview that Moore’s credibility and integrity went down the drain fast along with what little was left of biotech/GMO public trust, faith, and confidence.

What was missed by many viewers of this interview was the true power real questions and real journalism wield. As Moore begins physical escape from his interview gone wrong, he snaps “Interview me about golden rice. That’s what I’m talking about!” This is another window into the controlled debate that the entire premise of the GMO public relations approach is predicated upon. In a world of make believe, there is no room for reality or simple facts.

Similar controlled debates recently took place at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in which Katherine Paul, Associate Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), an organization dedicated to protecting organic standards, was officially censored by being removed by the biotech dominated and run “Southbites: Feed Your Mind” debate.

There has never been a better time for citizen journalists and independent thinkers to press this debate. If nothing else, Patrick Moore’s bumbling shows the world that small stones can topple genetically modified giants and that the biotech emperor officially has no clothes.