{"id":19486,"date":"2013-03-18T09:11:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T14:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=19486"},"modified":"2013-03-18T09:12:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T14:12:57","slug":"mark-lynas-and-his-break-with-the-anti-gmo-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/03\/18\/mark-lynas-and-his-break-with-the-anti-gmo-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Lynas and his break with the anti-GMO activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Lynas<\/a> was one of the most prominent activists working against the adoption of genetically modified crops. Over time, he realized he was fighting the wrong battle and publicly recanted his decades-long struggle. He talks about it in an interview with Charlie Gillis in Maclean’s<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Q: You\u2019ve disavowed a cause you were identified with for decades. How are you feeling about your decision?<\/em><\/p>\n

A:<\/em> It\u2019s been traumatic, but it\u2019s also been something of a liberation. I\u2019ve obviously been inconsistent in my life, but so are we all. In my view, it\u2019s better to be inconsistent and half-right, than to be consistently wrong. Even the pope doesn\u2019t claim these days to be infallible, yet that\u2019s what most environmental groups do.<\/p>\n

Q: Still, you\u2019ve offended your former allies, a lot of whom are now trying to discredit you. Some say you exaggerated your part in founding the anti-GM movement to start with. What\u2019s that been like on a personal level?<\/em><\/p>\n

A:<\/em> My whole social scene has been characterized by my environmentalism. I\u2019m in a situation where I can go to a party and I don\u2019t know who\u2019s currently not speaking to me.<\/p>\n

Q: On Twitter, Vandana Shiva, a prominent environmentalist in India, likened your calls for farmers to be able to plant GMOs to saying rapists should have the freedom to rape.<\/em><\/p>\n

A:<\/em> That was simply astonishing, and frankly, hurtful to people who have actually suffered the trauma of rape. Look, these attacks on me are obviously done in the interests of damage limitation. It\u2019s sort of an emperor\u2019s-new-clothes thing. I have helped expose the fact most people\u2019s concerns about GM foods are based on mythology. Once you can get past the idea that there\u2019s something inherently dangerous about GM foods, it\u2019s a whole different conversation. We actually can tell whether GM foods are safe. They have been extensively tested hundreds and hundreds of times, using different techniques. Many of the tests were conducted independently. The jury is entirely in on this issue.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

Q. You argue that opposing GMOs is actually anti-environmental.<\/em><\/p>\n

A.<\/em> That was the realization that changed my mind. That recombinant DNA is actually a potentially very powerful technology for designing crop plants that can help humanity tackle our food-supply shortages, and also reduce our environmental footprint. They can help us use less fertilizer, and dramatically reduce pesticide applications. We can reduce our exposure to climate change through drought and heat-tolerant crops. So the potential is enormous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Lynas was one of the most prominent activists working against the adoption of genetically modified crops. Over time, he realized he was fighting the wrong battle and publicly recanted his decades-long struggle. He talks about it in an interview with Charlie Gillis in Maclean’s: Q: You\u2019ve disavowed a cause you were identified with for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,65,74,28,16],"tags":[183,827,720],"class_list":["post-19486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-environment","category-food","category-media","category-science","tag-dna","tag-genetics","tag-protest"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-54i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19488,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19486\/revisions\/19488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}