From Slate, questions about the integrity of the anti-GMO food movement:
That’s the fundamental flaw in the anti-GMO movement. It only pretends to inform you. When you push past its dogmas and examine the evidence, you realize that the movement’s fixation on genetic engineering has been an enormous mistake. The principles it claims to stand for—environmental protection, public health, community agriculture—are better served by considering the facts of each case than by treating GMOs, categorically, as a proxy for all that’s wrong with the world. That’s the truth, in all its messy complexity. Too bad it won’t fit on a label.
As more scientists begin to comment on the merits of GMOs—scientists who were once the “darlings” of many in the anti-GMNO camp—you see a reaction very much like any other dogmatic group of suddenly turning on them, like they’re some kind of traitor. Both Neil Degrass Tyson and Bill Nye have had a change of opinion about GMOs and both have come under fire from former fans who think they’ve been bought out.
Some very beneficial strains of grains have had extremely difficult roads to travel because of the hysteria of people who frankly don’t know the first damn thing about what they’re condemning. All they see is a big label—SCIENCE!!!—and assume it’s evil.
Mark, you may be correct, I don’t know. I’ve always thought it originated out of ignorance of history. We’ve been genetically modifying organisms for ten to twelve thousand years through selective breeding and selection of the best seeds for planting. Crude, but it worked out very well.
You can also see https://www.toppr.com/guides/history/from-gathering-to-growing-food/the-start-of-farming-and-herding/