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

Description

In the mid-1990s, UK newspapers picked up on a controversial issue that had been slowly gathering steam - genetically modified organisms. The media soon could talk about little else. Headlines screamed that this technological advance could pose serious health risks, that our food was already GM-rich and yet we didn't even realise. How could this be? Of course there was science and statistics to back up these bold claims ... or was there? Twenty years on, the dust has settled. Scientists are working hard to devise new farming methods that will meet the world's food requirements while causing the minimum amount of ecological harm. We're now discovering that the environmentalist mainstream might have misjudged the GM issue completely, and as a consequence we have forfeited two decades' worth of scientific progress in perhaps the most vital area of human need: food. No one is more aware of this fact than the author of this book, Mark Lynas. Starting out as one of the leading activists in the fight against GM - from destroying experimental crop fields to leading the charge in the press - in 2013 Lynas famously admitted that he had got it all wrong. This book tells the story of how and why so many people were confused by genetic engineering. Lynas takes us back to the origins of the technology, and examines the histories of the people and companies who pioneered it. He explains what led him to question his assumptions on GM, and what he is doing now to further research in this field, making a difference in tackling poverty by using science to encourage better harvests. Seeds of Science lifts the lid on the whole controversial GM story, from the perspective of someone who has fought prominently on both sides. It provides an explanation of the research that has enabled this technology - something that was sorely missing from the media in the late 90s, which led to countless misconceptions about the field, one that could provide perhaps the only solution to a planet with a population of ten billion people.

Mark Lynas is the author of three major popular science environmental books: High Tide (2004), Six Degrees (2008) and The God Species (2011), as well as the Kindle Single ebook Nuclear 2.0 (2012). Six Degrees won the Royal Society prize and was made into a National Geographic documentary. Lynas was advisor to the President of the Maldives on climate change from 2009 until the coup in 2012. He has contributed extensively to global media, writing for the Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Bangkok Post and numerous others. He is a visiting fellow at the Cornell Alliance for Science, Cornell University.

In short, Mark Lynas is a saint. -- Dominic Lawson * Sunday Times * An excellent read, fluent, persuasive and surely right. * Evening Standard * Seeds of Science tells the [GMO] story from a unique perspective. The logic of Lynas's conversion is an implicit challenge to both the American right and the left. * The Washington Post * Gives readers a firsthand look at both sides of the discourse [...] The book begins with heart-racing accounts of the law-breaking activities Lynas engaged in [...] By the end of chapter 7, science has won the debate. * Science * Mark Lynas has written a rattling good account of his conversion from student activist to respected science writer. This is serious stuff, enlivened by all elements of a popular thriller. -- John Deben * Literary Review * The book is full of factoids that'll make you rethink a highly debated subject, and also what's really going on with those giant apples that don't bruise or brown. * bonappetit.com * Seeks to understand why greens, including Lynas himself, saw genetic engineering as an enemy from the very beginning [...] Lynas's experience suggests that the most important mind you can change is your own [...] Lynas has been through the fire to bring us this insight. * Grist * Partly a level-headed look at the benefits as well as the downsides of genetic modification, and partly a personal account of how Mark came to believe that the scientific method was, on the whole, not a bad way of analysing questions of crop production and farming. I found it riveting, largely because he writes so well and so open-mindedly, and I warmly recommend it. -- Philip Pullman Mark Lynas tells the remarkable story of a mass delusion fuelled by primitive folk-science intuitions, sacred values, and disinformation from some of our most sainted organizations. His expose is an important contribution to an issue with enormous potential for benefiting humanity, and a gripping account of the tensions that can surround technological progress. -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now A gripping story of how a passionate troublemaker became an equally passionate campaigner for the facts. Seeds of Science is not only a compellingly-researched argument, it is the tale of how Mark Lynas's life changed. Reading it may change your life, too. -- Tim Harford, author of Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy and presenter of More or Less Mark Lynas is a courageous writer whose evidence-based turnaround on GMOs should be a lesson to all environmentalists. A must-read for anyone who cares about our future. -- Simon Singh, popular science writer and author of The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets