I believe that some false narratives have taken over the public imagination; and these make it difficult for facts to break through.
One is that most people think of farming as continuous with nature, while biotech as a form of human engineering. And they would prefer that engineers not tinker with nature at all.
In my opinion, this view is based on ignorance. Farming has seen plenty of tinkerers, engineers, and nature-meddlers over the millennia; it is just that when a form of engineering… gets a couple of generations under its belt, it is… seen as part of tradition. This is exactly what happened to another farming technology that one could more properly consider a Frankenfood [French wine grapes in the 1860’s]…
…When it comes to human engineering… early flaws are to be expected. But nature… is seen as always perfect and any tinkering with it is seen as a fall from that state of original glassy wholeness. This is why, as I pointed out above, people judge biotechnology with the yardstick of perfection.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: My view on genetically-modified crops
