the mark lynas mythology: a GMO 'conversion' non story

http://www.nationofchange.org/mark-lynas-mythology-gmo-conversion-non-story-1361028893



On Jan. 3, Mark Lynas, British author of several books on global warming including Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, told a sold-out audience at the Oxford Farming Conference in Oxford, England, that he was sorry.

Sorry that he'd maligned genetically modified (GM) crops. Sorry that he'd “helped to start the anti-GM movement.” Sorry that he'd “demonized” a technology that could be used to “benefit the environment.”

That's right. An expert on global warming was now telling the world that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and GM crops, with their billions of tons of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, with their large-scale monocultures that leave food crops vulnerable to drought, pests and disease, are good for the environment.

Mainstream media reporters tripped over themselves to get the story out. Suddenly, the Mark Lynas “ conversion speech” was major news. “An Environmentalist's Conversion,” read the New Yorker. “Stark Shift for Onetime Foe of Genetic Engineering in Crops,” said the New York Times.

Never mind that Lynas's past work has been almost exclusively on climate issues, rather than genetically engineered foods and farming. Never mind that thereal leaders of the European anti-GMO movement scoffed at the notion that he was in any way a leader or founder. Never mind that his “conversion” was hardly news - he's been publicly praising genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for at least three years. The press fawned over Lynas's recantation.