Seeds of Science: Why We Got It So Wrong On GMOs - Softcover

Lynas, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472946995 ISBN 13: 9781472946997

Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma, 2018

Synopsis

'Fluent, persuasive and surely right.' Evening Standard

The inside story of the fight for and against genetic modification in food.

Mark Lynas was one of the original GM field wreckers. Back in the 1990s - working undercover with his colleagues in the environmental movement - he would descend on trial sites of genetically modified crops at night and hack them to pieces. Two decades later, most people around the world - from New York to China - still think that 'GMO' foods are bad for their health or likely to damage the environment. But Mark has changed his mind. This book explains why.

In 2013, in a world-famous recantation speech, Mark apologised for having destroyed GM crops. He spent the subsequent years touring Africa and Asia, and working with plant scientists who are using this technology to help smallholder farmers in developing countries cope better with pests, diseases and droughts.

This book lifts the lid on the anti-GMO craze and shows how science was left by the wayside as a wave of public hysteria swept the world. Mark takes us back to the origins of the technology and introduces the scientific pioneers who invented it. He explains what led him to question his earlier assumptions about GM food, and talks to both sides of this fractious debate to see what still motivates worldwide opposition today. In the process he asks - and answers - the killer question: how did we all get it so wrong on GMOs?

'An important contribution to an issue with enormous potential for benefiting humanity.' Stephen Pinker

'I warmly recommend it.' Philip Pullman

About this title

About the Author

Mark Lynas is an environmental writer and campaigner whose books have drawn attention to the perils of global warming. He is Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, a Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University's School of Geography and the Environment, and was Climate Advisor to the President of the Maldives from 2009 to 2011.

He has contributed extensively to global media, writing for the Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and numerous others. He is research lead at the Alliance for Science at the Boyce Thompson Institute, an affiliate of Cornell University, and has co-authored peer-reviewed papers on vaccines, climate and GMOs. He is co-founder of the pro-science environmental campaign network RePlanet, launched in 2021 and now active in 12 countries.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1472946995
• ISBN 13: 9781472946997
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304