Debunking ‘the big lie’ about genetically engineered crops

The following is an edited excerpt.

Anti-GM activists will be out in full force on Saturday (25 May) for the “March Against Monsanto,” which will be marked by numerous events worldwide to protest the company’s prominence in the production of genetically engineered crop plants.

In the past, the participants in such events have resembled a cross between Halloween trick-and-treaters in weird costumes and the 19th century Luddites who destroyed labor-saving textile machinery.

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But anti-genetic engineering activism is far from being all fun and games. When the activists are unable to sway public opinion with flagrant misrepresentations or to intimidate regulators into rejecting or delaying products, they often resort to harassment with nuisance lawsuits and even to vandalism of field trials.  Their stock in trade is The Big Lie – namely, that the application of molecular methods of genetic improvement is unwanted, unneeded, unsuccessful and unsafe.  These allegations have been debunked repeatedly over the years, as they are once again in a newly-released analysis from U.K.-based PG Economics and published in the peer reviewed scientific journal GM Crops.

Read the original article in its entirety here: Debunking ‘The Big Lie’ About Genetically Engineered Crops