After organic farmer Rob Wallbridge wrote a blog post earlier this year about the acrimonious tenor of the national debate over GMOs, Monsanto invited him for a private tour of the company’s headquarters in St. Louis. He agreed to come…with “trepidation.”
I’d say that I arrived open-minded but skeptical. I expected that we’d be coming from radically different perspectives, and I was prepared to listen to theirs (how else could I expect anyone to listen to mine?). I was also prepared for the “hard sell” — lots of promotional propaganda. What I ended up getting was quite different, and four months later, I’m still digesting it.
Since 2000, the company has been turning away from chemicals to crop breeding, agronomics, precision farming, and developing new genetically modified crops with desirable traits.
When it comes to Monsanto and biotechnology in general, I’m going to recognize that there are issues that need to be addressed, particularly with respect to certain elements of the technology, certain applications of it, and the concentration of power and resources that often accompany it. But I’m not going to demonize the technology of any of the people or companies involved with it. I’m going to engage in respectful, informed discussions of these and related topics, but I’m not going to tolerate unscientific fear-mongering.
Find out more about what this GMO skeptic discovered.
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Read the full, original story: An organic farmer walks into Monsanto…and this is what happened
