10 years after Michael Pollan’s ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’ unleashed ‘anti-GMO paranoia,’ science innovation continues

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Penguin Books is releasing a special tenth-anniversary edition of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, with a new foreword by the author. . . .

. . . . He’s proud of the fact that. . . . “sales of organic food have more than doubled since 2006. . . .” That’s quite an accomplishment for a journalist whose only experience in agriculture is the four years he spent writing the book.

. . . . But . . . I’m struck by how little has changed in the process by which genetically modified seed hits heavily fertilized soil. We’re still raising corn and soybeans, even more than we did in 2006. . . .

. . . .

. . .[A]griculture has remained much the same because we farmers do what we do for good reasons. . . . We use chemical compounds to control weeds and insects because it’s the only way to do that without handing a hoe to millions of Americans . . . .

. . . .

We’re seeing the same anti-technology and anti-science paranoia play out in the . . . sugar market. Hershey and other major candy makers refuse to use sugar from sugar beets because beets are genetically modified. . . .  But the environmental costs of raising sugarcane can be much higher than beet production. . . .

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Michael Pollan and His Faddish Foodie Followers, Ten Years After The Omnivore’s Dilemma

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