The latest chapter in the craziness of the anti-GMO movement is the proposed resolution by the New York Parent Teacher Association to ban from the state’s schools all food and drinks that contain genetically modified ingredients. The measure will be voted on at the group’s November meeting.

“This biotechnology science,” the resolution states, “creates unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods to obtain a desired trait or characteristic,” and “some research suggests an association between GMO and GE food consumption with grave health hazards, such as tumor development, kidney and liver toxicity, and even death in laboratory and food production animals.”

In New York State alone, it's estimated the additional cost to provide GMO-free school lunches would be as much as $15 million annually.—Getty Images/Tim Boyle

It goes on: “Until GMO and GE food safety is conclusively supported by good science, NYS PTA proposes acting with caution and keeping these products out of school-provided food and drinks.”

Uhhh, and one wonders: Just what, in their minds, would constitute “conclusively supported good science”?

Where were they when the world’s most respected independent science group recently issued a 388-page report on their examination of more than 2,000 scientific studies, concluding there are “no differences … that implicate a higher risk to human health from these GE foods than from their non-GE counterparts.”

Further, allegations of tumor development and kidney/liver toxicity have been thoroughly reviewed and rejected by leading scientists, who also point out that the genes in GMO crops and animals are indeed stable, or the genetically modified plants and animals would not thrive — which they have done over many years on millions of acres and in millions of animals.

There is concern that if this proposal is adopted in New York, it will spread to other school systems throughout the country and, multiplied across hundreds of millions of school lunches, will significantly increase the cost at a time when budgets are already strained. In New York State alone, it’s estimated the added cost could be as much as $15 million annually.

The American Council on Science and Health says the New York State PTA effort “demonstrates that widespread efforts to boost science literacy in America are being viciously undermined by dishonest food activists … (and we should) keep their twisted religion out of the classroom.”