• Luddites triumph Luddites triumph Monsanto’s decision to not market genetically modified wheat represents another triumph of baseless fear over science. It’s one more reason for Monsanto to hurry the day when genetically modified crops improve consumer health as well
• Luddites triumph
Luddites triumph
Monsanto’s decision to not market genetically modified wheat represents another triumph of baseless fear over science. It’s one more reason for Monsanto to hurry the day when genetically modified crops improve consumer health as well as crop yields.
St. Louis-based Monsanto dropped its genetically modified wheat after deciding that farmers in America and Canada were afraid to use it. The farmers wouldn’t plant it because importers in Japan and Europe wouldn’t buy it. In fact, they might shun all U.S. wheat rather than take the chance that some genetically modified grain might be mixed in.
The blame for that rests with a core of overwrought activists who insist against good evidence that genetic modification is evil. Genetically modified wheat was especially susceptible to the fear-mongering of activists because it involved the bread people eat every day, rather than crops used for animal feed and clothing.
Monsanto’s decision to shelve its genetically modified wheat follows a similar decision to kill its insect-resistant potato. The decisions stymie a technology that could reduce hunger and improve nutrition worldwide. Rice enhanced with vitamin A can prevent blindness and death in developing countries. It’s in field trials now. Poor farmers in Africa are seeing cotton yields jump after turning to seeds modified to resist insects.
But private industry won’t advance genetic technology unless it will sell in developed nations, where the money is.
The fear is that genetic modifications will produce unknown toxins that poison the populace. Others worry that genetic changes will jump species into wild plants, creating super weeds immune to herbicides, or kill off insects.
But none of those bogeymen has popped up in the decade since genetic technology hit the farm fields. Genetically modified seeds now make up 86 percent of American soy, 46 percent of corn and 76 percent of cotton crops. The bugs are fine, super weeds are science fiction, and no one is breaking out in hives.
Monsanto’s engineered spring wheat would have increased yields 5 percent to 15 percent but wouldn’t have helped consumers one whit. Genetically modified crops won’t gain acceptance until Western consumers have a reason to like them. Monsanto is working on soy that is lower in fats that clog blood vessels. Canola low in fatty acids already is on the market. Scientists are working on plants to deliver vaccines, such as a banana with the vaccine for Hepatitis B and a potato that helps prevent diarrhea.
For genetically modified technology to gain acceptance, consumers will have to see benefits to themselves, not just to farmers.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
