For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

Neoliberal environmentalist Mark Lynas recently gave a talk at the Oxford Farming Association in which he apologized for once militating against GMOs. Now, after having discovered “science” has decided we need GMOs to feed the world. ( http://vimeo.com/56745320 )

Anyone against GMOs, he claims, is anti-science because “the debate is over” and the “scientific consensus” has won… This is an all to familiar argument from the industry, and leads us to suspect that Lynas may have been recruited by EuropaBio’s “Pro-GM Ambassador Programme.” EuropaBio is.the very rich and vocal lobby association of GM companies in Brussels, that prepared an international outreach programme in 2011 to give a new impulse to GM crops in Europe http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/20/europabio-gm-ambassado…

Lynas’ rant is bringing a response from actual scientists. Dr. John Vandermeer from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan comments on Mark Lynas’ promising scientific conversion.

Guest blog by Professor John Vandermeer, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

DISCOVERING SCIENCE

The “conversion” of Mark Lynas has taken the world by storm, a bad guy suddenly sees the light and dresses in white. So complete was his conversion that evangelists around the world would be wise to seek the secrets of his messengers. And his conversion happened at an opportune time for the industrial agricultural system, under fire all over the world from people trying to push for a more sustainable system. But the political fallout, as unfortunately negative as it is, is something that will subside. There is something else that we should all applaud.