Question
Why dont you address the issues that Hakim raises in his NYTimes article of last year httpwww.nytimes.com20161030businessgmopromisefallsshort.html?r0
Submitted by: Mark E Hellermann
Answer
Expert response from Aimee Hood
Regulatory Science Communications Lead, Bayer Crop Science
Monday, 07/31/2017 17:10
Actually, the following were posted to GMO Answers after publication of the NYT article:
- ARTICLE: An Agricultural Economist’s Brief Assessment of the Article "Doubts About the Promised Bounty of GM Crops"
- ARTICLE: The Tiresome Discussion of Initial GMO Expectations
- ARTICLE: Rehashing a Tired Argument
- Farmer Sheds Light On NYT 'Doubts About The Promised Bounty Of GM Crops'
But I’ll give you my perspective as well. I remember reading that article in the New York Times on a Sunday, days after it was published. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The story he was writing was very different from what I have heard from our customers. It overlooked the perspectives of millions of farmers in the United States, India, South America and elsewhere in the world, who have chosen to plant GMOs over the past two decades. The reporter chose to cherry-pick data to argue that GMOs have failed to provide significant benefits, especially yield increases, to farmers in the United States. In fact, farmers in developing countries received $5.15 for each extra dollar invested in biotech crops in 2015, largely due to increased yields.
Here are some responses that were published soon after the NYT article appeared:
- Monsanto Responds to Misleading New York Times GMO Article
- Biotechnology Makes a Difference Huffington Post blog (Robb Fraley)
- The Nuances of Analyzing Yield Data Monsanto Blog (Eric Sachs)
What was even more impressive to me though was the way that academics, farmers and others responded to the article. Some of their responses are above, but here are a few others that may interest you:
- Some Actual Yield Data (Kevin Folta)
- The Times Gets it Wrong on GMOs (Steven Novella)
- New York Times on GMOs (Jayson Lusk)
It is a shame that Mr. Hakim didn’t reach out to the actual users of the technology – farmers – to see if GM crops lived up to their promises. Now, that would’ve been a great story.
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