Panic Nation - Chapter Four:

The harm that pressure groups can do - Part IV

Continued from 29.06.06

Lord TAVERNE

THE fashion for alternative medicine and traditional remedies, carried to extremes by Mbeki in his opposition to anti-retroviral drugs, is also based on the belief that practices based on nature are superior to modern medicine.

The campaign against the mumps, measles and rubella triple vaccine (MMR) was led by JABS, a group of people who were ideologically opposed to vaccination.

People forget that in the days before modern medicine life was nasty, brutish and short, and life expectancy was curtailed by the ravages of lethal infectious diseases which scientific medicine can now prevent or cure.

The rise in popularity of organic farming is another manifestation of the rejection of scientific evidence in favour of a mystical belief in 'nature'.

Its principles are partly based on a belief that natural chemicals are good while synthetic ones are bad, ignoring the fact that numerous natural substances, ranging from arsenic to ricin and aflatoxin, are deadly poisons and many synthetic chemicals, such as anti-bacterial drugs, are beneficial. None of the claims made for organic produce has ever been upheld when tested.

The Soil Association does claim to promote responsible animal husbandry and that is good news for animals. However, the Advertising Standards Association has twice made them withdraw leaflets making claims exclusively for organic farmers in this area.

In response, Patrick Holden, President of the Soil Association, told the House of Lords select committee that science was not sufficiently developed to be able to measure the special qualities of organic farming. It seems to suggest that a belief in mysticism is necessary to appreciate organic food's 'special qualities'.

Indeed, organic is ultimately harmful because of its inherent inefficiency. Overall its yields are some 20-50 per cent lower than those of conventional farming. This is why organic produce costs more. Lower-income families who are persuaded by the constant propaganda that organic food is healthier will not buy cheaper conventional food.

But if they pay higher prices for organic food they will be likely to spend less on fruit and vegetables that they need for a balanced diet. If the powerful organic-farming lobby succeeds in spreading its practices to the Third World, they would gravely aggravate the severe shortage of good farming land. Inefficient organic farming can offer to help to poor farmers in Africa in eliminating the pests and diseases that destroy half their produce.

Yet the back-to-nature movement gets an immense coverage in the media. It challenges the scientific establishment. It associated with a cause - saving the planet - about which everybody cares.

It is promoted by a group of NGOs who are such past masters at public relations that they have even imposed their own terminology. The term "Frankenfoods' was a brilliant invention. So was the phrase "terminator seeds", used to describe seeds whose plants are sterile.

The original purpose of 'Terminator seeds' was an answer to the fears that cross-pollination would lead to 'contanimation'. This virtue was deliberately ignored by the anti-GM lobby. They argue that the seeds force farmers to buy new seeds every year. No doubt firms like Monsanto see this as a useful side-effect.

As a result of the campaign against them, 'terminator' seeds were never marketed although recently English Nature suggested that 'genetic incompatibility' should be engineered into crops - in other words that 'terminator seeds' should be developed after all.

The world 'contamination' is constantly used with reference to GM crops. 'Contamination' is used to refer to cross-pollination, a process familiar in nature. The flow of genes between related species, and occasionally across species barriers, is the reason for our planet's biodiversity.

But 'contamination' implies corruption, pollution and impurity. The danger of GM 'contamination' is in fact another scare used to frighten us. When pejorative langauge is used for propaganda purposes, democrats should beware.

The examples I have cited show that good intentions are no guarantee of public benefit. Indeed, it is a common error to assume that what matters is motive, not results.

We are told by the George Monbiots and other self-appointed guardians of our conscience who see capitalist conspiracies everywhere that anyone with any association with the corporate world cannot contribute to impartial debate or the welfare of mankind, because association with the profit motive corrupts integrity.

Given that, regrettably, public investment in scientific research has declined and that most scientific and technological innovation depends on corporate funds, it follows that we should be suspicious of virtually all modern technology, from the washing machine to the computer.

In fact, though scientists have values, science does not. Science itself is objective, and, in evaluating the importance of scientific findings, the motives of the research are in the end irrelevant. What matters is the quality of the findings. Are they reproducible? Do they stand up to criticism? Researchers working for a company that makes a profit may also be concerned to benefit mankind.

They can produce science which is as valid as researchers working for Greenpeace who may be motivated by a wish to gain publicity as well no doubt to preserve our environment. Conversely, the most public spirited, completely independent scientists can produce bad science.

In the end, the progress of science depends on evidence. Many NGOs promote many excellent causes, but, because too many of them do not regard respect for evidence as the golden rule, their actions often severely damage the causes they profess to serve.

The writer has been an influential voice in politics for many years. As a labour MP, he became Financial Secretary to the Treasury; in 1973 he was elected as an Independent Social Democrat and today he sits in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat.

He is the author of The March of unreason: Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism published in 2005.

Panic Nation is published by John Blake Publishing, London