Rural Press Club: Seeds of Science - why we got it so wrong on GMOs
Join us to hear from Mark Lynas, world renowned author & environmental activist, on the inside story of the fight for and against genetic modification in food, from the former activist who's been on the front line of both sides of the argument.
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In the 1990s, Mark Lynas was at the centre of the anti-GM movement, organising huge groups of campaigners to take political action, wrecking GM crops and even attempting to steal Dolly the Sheep. Two decades later, and the legacy of Mark and his environmental colleagues work still lives on and the general public still assume ‘GMO’ foods are bad for your health or likely to damage the environment.  But Mark changed his mind, and his latest book, 'Seeds of Science', explains why. In 2013, in a world-famous recantation speech, Mark apologised for having destroyed GM crops. He spent the subsequent years touring Africa and Asia and working with plant scientists who are using this technology to help smallholder farmers in developing countries cope better with pests, diseases and droughts. His book lifts the lid on the anti-GMO craze and shows how science was left by the wayside as a wave of public hysteria swept the world. Mark will take us back to the origins of the technology and introduce the scientific pioneers who invented it. He explains what led him to question his earlier assumptions about GM food and talked to both sides of this fractious debate to see what still motivates worldwide opposition today. In the process he asked – and answered – the killer question: how did we all get it so wrong on GMOs? and will take a look at how it could help solve the global food crisis. Mark is the author of three major popular science environmental books: High Tide (2004), Six Degrees (2008) and The God Species (2011), as well as the Kindle Single ebook Nuclear 2.0 (2012). High Tide was long listed for the Samuel Johnson Award for Non-Fiction, and short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. Six Degrees was long-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2008, and won the prestigious Royal Society Prize for Science Books in the same year. Six Degrees became a TV hit for National Geographic, whose Six Degrees Could Change the World – voiced by Alec Baldwin – has been watched by tens of millions around the globe on the National Geographic Channel. The book has now been translated into 22 languages around the world. Mark was advisor to the President of the Maldives on climate change from 2009 until the coup in 2012. He has contributed extensively to global media, writing for the Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Bangkok Post and numerous others. Until 2017 he was a visiting fellow at the Cornell Alliance for Science, Cornell University. What: Seeds of Science - why we got it so wrong on GMOs |
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