107 Nobel laureates sign letter blasting Greenpeace over GMOs

[All Along The Watchtower]

Good for these scientists. We need more people speaking out against irrational, anti-scientific woo - regardless of where it comes from politically or ideologically.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/29/more-than-100-nobel-laureates-take-on-greenpeace-over-gmo-stance/

[dead0man]

I think we've only got a few anti-science nut jobs here....but I'm sure they'll be along to tell us that they're "just asking questions" and "what's wrong with more information?"

[joevsimp]

Interesting example that this has come up on, you could argue this as a natural progression of things like the use of GM bacterial strains to produce insulin. I would imagine that Greenpeace's opinion is not just anti-scientific hysteria (not entirely anyway) but worries that this is a trojan horse for setting a precedent of widespread introduction of GM crops to those who have limited choice in the matter, and a general feeling that reinforcing grain-based monocultures in the developing world is not the way to combat malnutrition and that there are other factors at play

Personally, I'm also a scientist by profession, I don't have an issue with the safety of GM foods, biotech and pharma companies know full well that its not worth the risk to release something to the public that they are not 100% certain is going to be safe to consume.  I don't like the anti-scientific hysteria of some of the anti-GM side, and I don't like the patronising view of the pro-GM lobby that opponents are all hysterical luddites who would rather have starving children die, what I especially can't stand is the stock line that this is an extension of the selective breeding that has been going on for millennia because it is clearly not the same.

the biotech companies are not funding this research out of the kindness of their hearts, they have shareholders who demand a profit and those profits are dependent on control, and I do not want the world's food supply to be just one more thing that exists to serve the purposes of rent-seeking capital

[Santander]

... and liberals claim that conservatives have a monopoly on science denial.