

How an environmental activist came to love GMOs - ScotterC
http://www.marklynas.org/2013/01/lecture-to-oxford-farming-conference-3-january-2013/

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tptacek
_So I did some reading. And I discovered that one by one my cherished beliefs
about GM turned out to be little more than green urban myths.

I’d assumed that it would increase the use of chemicals. It turned out that
pest-resistant cotton and maize needed less insecticide.

I’d assumed that GM benefited only the big companies. It turned out that
billions of dollars of benefits were accruing to farmers needing fewer inputs.

I’d assumed that Terminator Technology was robbing farmers of the right to
save seed. It turned out that hybrids did that long ago, and that Terminator
never happened.

I’d assumed that no-one wanted GM. Actually what happened was that Bt cotton
was pirated into India and roundup ready soya into Brazil because farmers were
so eager to use them.

I’d assumed that GM was dangerous. It turned out that it was safer and more
precise than conventional breeding using mutagenesis for example; GM just
moves a couple of genes, whereas conventional breeding mucks about with the
entire genome in a trial and error way.

But what about mixing genes between unrelated species? The fish and the
tomato? Turns out viruses do that all the time, as do plants and insects and
even us – it’s called gene flow._

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ScotterC
Site crashed. PDF here: [http://www.ofc.org.uk/files/ofc/papers/mark-lynas-
lecture-ox...](http://www.ofc.org.uk/files/ofc/papers/mark-lynas-lecture-
oxford-farming-conference.pdf)

