GMOs

In the Weeds

Nick Kaplinsky, Chair of Biology at Swarthmore College, and I discuss Nina Fedoroff's book Mendel in the Kitchen, on the genetic modification of food, going back the earliest domestication of crops such as wheat and corn, to foods currently labeled as “GMOs.” Kaplinsky surprises me with the statement that opposition to GMOs on the left ressembles climate change denial on the right. What is at the heart of this claim? To better understand genetically-modified foods, you have to delve into the science, which, Kaplinsky points out, very few of us have the education to properly understand, and you have to look at the complex picture of agriculture today and what is at stake both in the U.S. and in countries such as India and Bangladesh, where a genetically-modified form of rice known as “golden rice” could alleviate the devastating effects of vitamin A deficiency for those who subsist primarily on rice.