Dominic Lawson interviews people who have changed their mind on controversial matters.
He asks the environmentalist Mark Lynas, who was once a prominent figure in direct actions to destroy genetically modified crops, why he now advocates for GM technology and what the reaction has been from his former allies.
“My original position was that there was something uniquely scary about this technology and that scientists were doing something artificial and unnatural with our food and with our crops that shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” Lynas said.
Lynas participated in activist vandalism cutting down maize plants in test fields using machetes in the dead of night.
He began to realize there was an inconsistency in his accepting climate change based on the scientific consensus while ignoring scientific consensus on GMOs.
“The initial inkling I had was that I might have gotten the science a bit wrong but obviously Monsanto is still bad and obviously still the technology had a lot of evil aspects to it and then gradually the whole picture unfolds and I realize I’ve got the whole thing really completely backwards. I think the technology is an essential component to making farming sustainable in the future and protecting food security,” he said.
Read full, original article: Why I changed my mind
