Fairgoers at the Common Ground Fair this year could be in for a big surprise if one of the keynote speakers chooses to demonstrate a little-known skill. Jeffrey Smith, vocal opponent of biotechnology in agriculture and featured speaker on Saturday, Sept. 20, once traveled to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate “yogic flying” in support of a candidate for the U.S. Senate running on the Maharishi Natural Law Party ticket. A witness to the demonstration said the twelve yogic flyers seated cross-legged on the floor looked like “corn popping” as they levitated, then fell back to earth at the press conference.

Yogic flying would certainly make for a more informative presentation than the one Smith plans: “The documented health effects of genetically modified foods.” The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, in a bid to breathe life into its flagging campaign to make Maine a “GMO free” state, is dragging Smith out here from Fairfield, Iowa, home to the Maharishi University, to warn the crowd at Common Ground of the dangers of eating non-organic food. Nothing subtle there.

Smith’s problem is that he isn’t an expert on the subject, though he bills himself as “a leading spokesperson on the health dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).” Smith’s last hands-on experience in a science lab was probably in high school biology; his college training is in business administration. He makes his living writing books and giving lectures on the dangers of GMO foods. Any bets on whether there will be a table selling his books at the fair?

“Genetic Roulette” is Smith’s most recent self-published book.  It details 65 alleged health risks from eating foods containing genetically modified ingredients. The so-called risks are a laundry list of the health scares spun by opponents of GMOs. Trouble is, in the 20 years that farmers have been planting GMOs, not one single adverse health effect has been documented. To make matters worse, experts have systematically demolished the science behind Smith’s 65 alleged risks.

For example, the damage caused to rats from eating GMO potatoes? Nature retracted the study, which is now widely recognized as flawed in its design. The allergies claimed by those who ate Star Link corn that mistakenly found its way into corn products? All tests of people claiming allergic reactions were negative, including a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial – the gold standard. Or the Russian researcher who claimed the offspring of rats fed GMO soy died within three weeks? The openly anti-biotech researcher with ties to Greenpeace never published her work.

It’s not surprising that Smith’s books reflect a profound lack of respect and understanding for the scientific process; books based on good science don’t sell very well. What is surprising is that the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association would give Smith a platform from which to deliver his anti-biotechnology rant. Smith’s obvious lack of qualifications on the subject means that MOFGA is more interested in scoring points than in educating the public, a strange posture for an organization that bases its exemption from paying income taxes on a claim of educating the public.

For nearly 20 years, MOFGA has been at the center of an effort to block the use of modern biotechnology by Maine farmers who choose not to farm organically. Though there have been a few victories along the way, MOFGA has lost the overall battle as more and more Maine farmers are planting biotech varieties. This summer, for the first time, Maine dairy farmers were cleared to plant insect-resistant, genetically modified corn — a major blow to MOFGA’s campaign against biotech. Now, in an apparent last-ditch effort to squash the technology by frightening consumers who choose not to buy organic food, MOFGA is dragging Jeffrey Smith to Maine to sell his books and, hopefully, transcend the moment with some yogic flying.

Douglas R. Johnson Ph.D. is executive director of the Maine Biotechnology Information Bureau in Stonington. www.mainebioinfo.org.