Smith is Not a Scientist But He Did Try to Play One on TV
by Walter Lagraves…….
Dear Editor:
A recent Facebook video put up by NEVER AGAIN FOUNDATION LLC (slick name isn’t it!) featured a Mr. Smith damning the use of GMM to protect the public against Zika is worth checking out. Just for the record, Never Again Foundation LLC is a brand new group dedicated to halting the use of GMM in protecting you and I from Zika and other diseases.
Smith immediately began misleading the viewer by stating that he was “down here testifying.” I don’t think he appeared at the last mosquito board meeting, even if he had, it would not be testimony. To the best of my knowledge there are currently no legal actions here in Monroe County concerning GMM or GMO. I must wonder if Mr. Smith has ever been qualified in a court of law as an expert on the issue of genetic engineering. I doubt it.
In the vid Smith promotes a veiled threat that if the GMM technology is used, “someone” “might” start a rumor that “someone” was damaged by the technology. Hence tourism would suffer. The real danger is that if Zika gets a foothold in our community innocents will suffer and….our economy will be savaged. Ask Miami Dade..!
The balance of the vid was the stock in trade of the Anti’s…no science…lots of maybe’s, what if’s, and sundry other speculation.
Wait for the next step…it will be a request for donations from NAF LLC.
Smith is an interesting character. Repeat character. It is reported that Smith was a Natural Law Party member in 1996. He failed as a politician…he ran for Congress…and lost. Smith is noted for having participated in a TM-Sidhi program yogic flying demonstration in Des Moines, Iowa. Yep…he was a flying Yogi! Try to wrap your mind around that.
Smith is not a scientist. But he did try to play one on TV. He actually was a guest on the Dr. Oz show a couple of times. A genuine molecular biologist and food scientist, wrote to the show arguing that Smith’s “only professional experience prior to taking up his crusade against biotechnology is as a ballroom-dance teacher, yogic flying instructor, and political candidate for the Maharishi cult’s natural-law party.”[4] Jon Entine, a author and science journalist, accused Smith of being “an activist with no scientific or medical background” and said that Smith’s views amount to “near-hysterical criticism”.”
It appears that Smith makes a living by being a rabid anti genetic engineering activist. He does not even claim to be a scientist. But he has self published a number of books that vilify genetic engineering. He heads an anti GMO group in Iowa that gave $10k to Citizens for Safe Science…the failed anti Oxitec PAC. The money in being an Anti must be pretty good. Maybe thats why we now see a brand new entity: Never Again Foundation LLC.
You may wish to read more about Mr. Smith…..that’s Mr., not Doctor Smith in either one of the following articles.