Michael Specter
When people say they prefer organic food, what they often seem to mean is they don't want their food tainted with pesticides and their meat shot full of hormones or antibiotics. Many object to the way a few companies - Monsanto is the most famous of them - control so many of the seeds we grow.Collection: Famous
All the food we eat - every grain of rice and kernel of corn - has been genetically modified. None of it was here before mankind learned to cultivate crops. The question isn't whether our food has been modified, but how.Collection: Food
All the food we eat, whether Brussels sprouts or pork bellies, has been modified by mankind. Genetic engineering is only one particularly powerful way to do what we have been doing for eleven thousand years.Collection: Food
Universal vaccination may well be the greatest success story in medical history.Collection: History
There has never been a verified scientific report that chelation therapy, a gluten-free diet, or anything else can cure autism.Collection: Diet
Be sceptical, ask questions, demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted. But here's the thing: When you get proof, you need to accept the proof. And we're not that good at doing that.Collection: Needs
All the food we eat - every grain of rice and kernel of corn - has been genetically modified. None of it was here before mankind learned to cultivate crops. The question isnt whether our food has been modified, but how.Collection: Corn
People wrap themselves in their beliefs. And they do it in such a way that you can't set them free. Not even the truth will set them free.Collection: Atheist
Your dollar cheeseburger isn't a dollar if you factor in what it's going to cost in health care.Collection: Dollars
I understand the horrors of having no insurance, but, believe me, eight hours of sleep and good meals are NOT going to prevent you from getting sick. Don't gamble with your life; it's a stupid bet.Collection: Stupid
Vaccination is a public health issue because influenza is a highly contagious disease. If you don't vaccinate your child, his or her schoolmates are much more likely to become ill. That is why some places (New York, for example) are making the vaccine mandatory for school children.Collection: New York
Benjamin Franklin refused to have one of his children vaccinated against smallpox. The four-year-old boy died, and Franklin wrote later of how mistaken he was to expose him to the needless risk.Collection: Children
In the Internet age, with the screaming on the radio, etc., it is hard to know what to believe and who is informed and who is not.Collection: Believe
I think it's too soon to say that, and I think, basically - most of the people that I ran across and most of the studies that I saw suggest people don't go to McDonald's to eat healthy food. They go to eat fries and cheeseburgers.Collection: Thinking
I think it is true that you can eat extremely healthy food at McDonald's, and you can eat amazingly badly at Chipotle.Collection: Thinking
Daily vitamins are of no value.Collection: Vitamins
Flu is easily transmitted, so if you are working with sick people - who are most at risk for getting seriously ill - you ought to be vaccinated. I am not really equipped to say whether it should be the law or not.Collection: Law
I started to write about science and medicine at the Washington Post, in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.Collection: Writing
I have never earned one penny from any pharmaceutical company. I will never accept one penny from them either. Ever.Collection: Pennies
It is not possible to assert publicly that Monsanto is anything other than venal without being accused of being a sellout, a fraud, or worse.Collection: Fraud
There are always potential side effects for every vaccine.Collection: Vaccines