During a 2013 conference on farming Mark Lynas spoke about GMOs. Mark Lynas originally was against GMOs and was publicly speaking against them. He thought they were run by large corporations and only benefited the rich. Mark said that this was not the case and that many small and local farmers benefited from GMOs. Mark also said that one of the reasons he did not support GMOs was because he thought they used more pesticides. He later found out that this was also not the case and genetically modified agriculture used less pesticides than non-modified types of agriculture. He has now switched his view points on this matter. He has done his research and truly believes that GMOs will play a crucial role in feeding a rapidly increasing human population. Mark stated that by 2050 there would be around 9.5 billion people on the earth and that we would have to increase our current agriculture production by over 100%. He also said that one of common myths people believe for why the human population is growing is because developing and poor nations are having a lot of babies. He went on to say that this not entirely true. The main reason the human population is rapidly growing is due to the increase in medical care. Today more and more kids are making past childhood and reproducing. Mark said that there are a around 2 billion children around the world who will be responsible for the 9.5 billion human population. Overall I found this video insightful and shining light on some myths that I thought were true.
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Mark Lynas and the Enlightenment of GMO’s
Listening to Mark Lynas’s speech on GMO’s I was enlightened on the many misconceptions on them. In fact, Mark Lynas believed his whole life how bad and unnatural GMO’s are to the planet, he acquired data and fact checking and afterwards completely changed. Lynas opened his mind to the reality of how much we need engineered science to improve our crop yield and to also help the population strive. I find it very interesting how many people find it so unnatural and look to substitutions like organic instead, which is far worse than farming with GMO’s. While consuming crops that are organic, it can create a risk factoring death, where it doesn’t protect people from any diseases. Not to mention the lower crop yield it takes on, which takes away from GMO farming. Having a lot of people farm GMO, helps regulate nitrogen and leads to fixing the worlds problem with nitrogen pollution. Before watching this video, I also thought GMO’s were unnatural and feared them. After watching this video, I see how wrong I am to view GMO’s as unnatural when we humans need them to thrive for future generations and especially if we plan on having roughly nine to ten billion people on this Earth by 2050, then a good start would be to push biotechnology like GMO’s. Overall many people believe in a lot of misconceptions about the unnatural laws of Genetically Modified Organisms, and we should take ways to educate people on the idea.
Mark Lynas at the 2013 Oxford Conference towards GMO’s
Mark Lynas has done a total 180 on how he views the importance of GMO’s. One of the first things he says as he starts his speech is ” I want to start with some apologies which I believe are most appropriate to this audience. For the record, here and upfront I would like to apologize for having spent several years ripping up GM crops… starve the anti-GM movement back in the 90’s… demonizing an important technological option which can and should be used to benefit the environment.” Lynas completely regrets the counterproductive path he has chosen and he regrets it entirely. He discovered science and the importance of GM’s for today’s uprising population. When he first heard about GM’s he thought that it was just a “big AMERICAN corporation with a nasty track record putting something new and experimental into our food supply.” With me being a former vegan and only wanting to eat some of the most pristine vegetables I too was afraid of GMO’s and if they would damage my body. Over time throughout several hours of research and my Agriculture class that I am currently taking through the University of Delaware, my professor has enlightened me on how much he GMO’s have impacted the world! I am a strong supporter of GMO usage in today’s crops. Without them, we would not be able to feed today’s population along with our aminals to get other products from. In the rest of the Lynas’s speech, he explains how with the GMO’s can help the world and should be approved all around.