Jane Goodall is well-deserving of the many laudatory obituaries recently published. But there is one disturbing twist in the great ethologist’s late intellectual trajectory: she was fooled by “anti-GMO” conspiracy theories. See Anti-GMO writers show profound ignorance of basic biology and now Jane Goodall has joined their ranks and “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public.”
Not only did she support anti-scientific “authors”, but she also made the situation worse with a dedicated chapter in one of her books: see “Jane Goodall’s Troubling, Error-Filled New Book, ‘Seeds of Hope’” – Just one quote: “The most recent monstrous crime against plants – at least in my view – is the tinkering with their DNA.”
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Her view is wrong: decades of safe consumption of transgenic crops and derivative products as foods for humans and feeds for animals, and the recent exciting advances in gene editing (CRISPR and similar processes) show that “tinkering with plants’ DNA” is no more risky than conventional breeding. Innovative plant breeding technologies have advanced sustainable agriculture (e.g. massively reducing chemical sprays and reducing crop loss).
It is called agri-food biotechnology.
A version of this article was originally posted at European Scientist and has been reposted here with permission. Any reposting should credit the original author and provide links to both the GLP and the original article. Find European Scientist on X @EuropeScientist