Seeds Of Science

In the mid-1990s, the global media picked up on a controversial issue that had been slowly gathering steam--genetically modified organisms. Headlines screamed that this technological advance could pose serious health risks, that our food was already GMO-rich without our knowledge. How could this be? Of course there was science and statistics to back up these bold claims . . . or was there?Twenty years later, 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 GMO issue completely, and as a consequence we have forfeited two decades' worth of scientific progress in perhaps the most vital area of human food.No one is more aware of this fact than Mark Lynas. Starting out as one of the leading activists in the fight against GMOs--from destroying experimental crop fields to leading the charge in the press--in 2013 Lynas famously admitted that he got it all wrong. 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 GMOs, and how he is currently tracking poverty by using genetic modification to encourage better harvests.Seeds of Science lifts the lid on the whole controversial GMO 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 which led to countless misconceptions about a field that could provide perhaps the only solution to a planet with a population of ten billion people.

Author: Mark Lynas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma

Released Date: 2018

ISBN: 9781472946997