I think the speech that Mark Lynas gave at the 2013 Oxford Farming Conference is very informative and interesting. His updated views on Genetically Modified Organisms ,or GMs as he calls them, are extremely relevant to today’s society.  His current position, that GMs are beneficial and not harmful, is something that more people need to come to terms with instead of blindly opposing. Mark Lynas honestly admits that he was wrong in his previous stance on GM’s and that he did not actually know the facts behind his opinion, but just followed other people’s ideas.

Mark Lynas’ complete 180 change of heart was sparked by one comment on his anti-GM Guardian article from a critic who said,

“so you’re opposed to GM on the basis that it is marketed by big corporations. Are you also opposed to the wheel because because it is marketed by the big auto companies?”

That was all it took for Lynas to do some research and realize his views were incorrect all along. In his third book, The God Species, he was able to take a look at the bigger picture on a planetary scale instead of basic environmentalist orthodoxy that so many people believe. Lynas brings up points throughout his speech such as the fact that we are going to have to feed 9.5 billion people on the amount of land we use today while using limited resources. The truth is that organic food and the way food is produced today is not going to be enough to feed all of those people. GMs provide the opportunity to grow food with more nutrients, stability, and resistance to insects and disease without the use of so many pesticides.

With the world’s “trendy” idea that GMO’s are bad and organics are so healthy and beneficial, Lynas’ speech is something that needs to be shared and understood. The population needs to stop being afraid of change and instead must open their minds to the facts and try to understand the truth about GMO’s.