For more than a decade, Europe has been as anti-science as can be imagined regarding genetically modified organisms — consumer crops that have had their genetic code altered in order to make them easier to farm.
Environmental activists have frequently responded to GM crop trials by vandalizing or destroying them, while scare stories about “Frankenfoods” have been a regular staple of the British media diet. But two developments in the last month show that Europe may be joining the science community again, while California prepares to leave it:
1) The European Food and Safety Authority rejected a French ban of genetically modified corn, saying that there was evidence of harm to humans, animals, or the environment.
2) When the anti-science hippies at “Take the Flour Back” attempted to vandalize a taxpayer funded GM wheat trial in Rothamsted, England, media reporting and comment was neutral or positive about the experiments or actively hostile to the protesters—a far cry from the days of ‘Frankenfood’ headlines.
Death of “Frankenfood” By Jeremy Stahl, Slate.com
