The global movement against genetic modification, it is fair to say, does in general spring from the green left side of the political spectrum, but is anti-GM campaigning actually that left-wing?
Is it beyond the imagination of anti-GM activists that genetic modification could be used for public benefit instead of private profit? Anti-GMO activists may well be sincere in opposing social injustice, but all the same, they think that these problems arise from something inherent in the technology. In so doing, the complaint is in fact not the business practices of Monsanto, or even capitalism, but technology and progress itself.
The Left used to be quite clear that technologies used in the context of colonisation and exploitation in another political and economic context could be liberatory. We didn’t want to do away with industry, but rather capture it and run it democratically.
Read the full, original post: Frankenpolitics: The Left defence of GMOs