Unscientific Educator

This is a letter I repeatedly sent to the ICO in response to a letter rebutting one of mine. The ICO will not publish my rebuttal, effectively leaving the issue in favor of their position:

The letter from Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer (ICO 12/18/15), impressed me by its misinformation, disinformation, and obvious activism. In particular, where are the studies supporting her statement that GM-crops are responsible for food insecurity for millions of farming families? In Africa, where GM is almost totally banned? In India, where cotton is the only GM crop?

Dr. Pfeiffer, you wrote: “Agricultural policies relying solely on (GMO) … cause early deaths throughout the world.” Where? I found no studies indicating that GMO reliance on off-farm inputs caused unprecedented levels of farmer debt and suicide. Not in Africa, North or South America, Australia, or Europe. How about India, where only GM-cotton is planted? The evidence of Indian GM-caused farmer suicides is anecdotal, but studies show no correlation. India has had and continues to have a high suicide rate, but farmer suicides now are the same as prior to the introduction of GM-cotton. Scientific American finds the GMO-farmer suicide claim is false. (http://tinyurl.com/ozpgamp) 

India has made great progress and rapid changes in agriculture (http://tinyurl.com/hpzez27), but necessary future progress will require GMO technology. 

Dr. Pfeiffer and others suffer from “Romantic Populism,” the opposition to large commercial farming, agricultural technology, and American oil production.

They create and disseminate myths about indigenous farmers and GMO, while supporting ethanol and biofuels abominations. They fail to recognize that increased agricultural productivity, even on small farms, came from chemical fertilizers, irrigation, and hybrid seeds. (http://tinyurl.com/hnx7apj) 

Following my last letter, the ICO Editor commented that Trump’s ban would be based on religion, not ideology. The ICO Editor is obviously unaware of the Hudson Institute’s Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, Volumes 1-19, (http://tinyurl.com/hqtyd2d) and frequent use in NY Times articles. (http://tinyurl.com/jcnnsj9)

GMOs use less water, land, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, and plowing while increasing productivity. Now that’s truly “green.”

Environmentalist Ignorance - GMO

A while back I told appreciative Gualala Rotarians of the benefits to mankind (and safety) of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), and criticized the ignorance and unscientific biases that resulted in the passage of Measure H, the Mendocino County GMO ban. As characterized in Wikipedia, “Mendocino is famous for being a bastion of rural counter-culture where many liberal activists and members of California’s hippie generation led a ‘back to the land movement’ during the 1970s.”

Happily, I found unlikely reinforcement from Greenpeace environmental activist Mark Lynas in his “Lecture to Oxford Farming Conference,” January 3, 2013. Lynas had significantly contributed to an unscientific and emotional environment that led governments around the world – especially Western Europe, Asia, and Africa – to ban GMOs. 

Thus spake Lynas:

“I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologize for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonizing an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.

“As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter- productive path. I now regret it completely.

“So I guess you’ll be wondering – what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist.”

His lecture is fascinating, but it's 5,000 words long, so everyone who dares risk having their ignorance confronted and expelled should read it online (http://www.marklynas.org/ ).