People have strong beliefs, I think, about whether something is good if it's natural
or bad if it's unnatural. What do you think about that?
Well, this is a romantic notion that is a complete fallacy. It's a lie, alright. People
think that being natural means being good. Everything must be natural today, from your
shampoo to—I don't know—the linens in your bed. Even toilet paper is advertised as all natural.
The truth is that nature is not good and nature is not bad. Nature is just neutral. There's
nothing more natural than an earthquake, and that's not very good. There's nothing more
natural than malaria, and that's not good either.
Being natural doesn't mean being good, but today everything, especially on TV, there
is this romantic notion that if we put natural on a product, call it a yoghurt or a pair
of socks, I'm going to sell more. That's where it all comes from, you know—just advertising.
I was looking the other day, there is some trend now in the US and some parts of Europe
that people are now saying we've got to drink the milk absolutely natural, as it comes out
of the cow, without even pasteurizing it or even boiling it. There are now official signs
by the US Government saying—I mean, advertisements saying do not do that because there are huge
amounts of cases of listeria by getting the natural milk out of the cow without any kind
of manipulation just because of the concept of "can't be any better than just out of the cow—drink it." Thank you.
Why do you think we have a propensity towards liking things that are natural?
Because it sounds good and it looks good. It makes you feel good about it. It's natural.
There is nothing artificial. It's like artificial things are bad; natural things are good. But
artificial things like electricity is not that bad, and that's very artificial. Artificial
things like vaccines are not bad, and they are extremely artificial.
In general, you like natural means good; artificial means bad. Nothing natural can harm me because
it comes from Mother Nature. What you don't understand is that Mother Nature is not your
mother. It's the mother of yourself and the mosquitoes that give you malaria and the lion
that can eat you in the middle of Africa.
When they invented the microwave, people wouldn't take it. People wouldn't buy it because something
that can heat up things in ten seconds, that can't be good, with this myth going around
that microwave would make food radioactive and people wouldn't buy it. Now there is a
microwave in every house. There is a tendency to resist innovation if you have a perceived risk.
What would you say to somebody that says the risks for genetically modified food are just too high?
Well, the risk is too high is a perception that I don't find it justified by science
and by facts. We've been growing GM food now for a long, long time and there isn't any
reports saying that there's any bad consequence for human health.
By the way, there are plenty of reports that normal foods end up in food poisoning. I just
heard today that a couple of Australian citizens have died in Bali out of food poisoning eating
in a restaurant. There is no GM there involved. There is risk in GM, in non-GM. There is risk
in everything you do in life.
When you cross the street, you run a risk, but if you don't cross the street, you're
stuck in a corner. You've got to go places. You have to cross the street every now and
then. What do you do? If you think about the risk and the consequences and how to minimize
the risk, and then you take a decision. When you're crossing a street, you look left, you
look right, and say, "There is no cars. I can cross the street." Or you look left and
right and you see too many cars and say, "I'd rather find another place to cross the street."
That's what you do. You minimize risk.
With food, it's the same thing. GM food, as a matter of fact, the regulation is so strict
that GM food are completely tested of everything, and normal food are not. Therefore, the risk
in GM food is a lot less than in normal, what they call normal food. By the way, there's no normal anymore.
What do you mean there's no normal anymore?
Well, there is nothing that we eat that is natural anymore. Food has been manipulated
for thousands of years for our convenience. You can have bananas without seeds because
bananas with seeds are not convenient for humans. Or you have food that is a lot more nutritious.
If you go to the original foods, they will always be smaller, have a lot less yield per
hectare, and the nutrition is going to be a lot less.
By the way, there is this thing going around that just because they are old, they are better.
No, things that are old are just older. They are not better by definition.
What advice would you give to people about how they can make better decisions in their
everyday life based on your research?
Well, you shouldn't get too serious about using science for everything because otherwise
you wouldn't end up doing anything in your life, but there are things that may be important
for you that you should use science or at least fact-based decisions.
My specialty is foods. There is some of the food that's being sold in the market with
this myth that they are better. Do your research. Find out if they really are. There are some
food that are labelled this or that, that say they are better; they have less residues
or they are more natural. Do a bit of research. Find out the facts.
I know you're going to pay twice the price to buy that particular food, and you're free,
and I will respect your decision, but find the facts. If the facts say it's better, go
for it. Most of the time, those things are claims that are unsubstantiated.
My name is Jimmy. I think about life.