MOST ANTI-GMO ACTIVISTS WON’T ADMIT IT, BUT THEIR REAL CONCERN IS THAT THE TECHNOLOGY SEEMS TO BE CONTROLLED BY A HANDFUL OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS, MCHUGHEN SAYS. “They don’t like the idea of something as visceral and basic as the food supply being controlled by companies. That’s a fair issue, and it’s a very good question for society to discuss,” he adds.
“Is it appropriate in our multicultural, democratic society to have the food supply controlled by a handful of companies? That it’s an opportunity for discussion that gets sidetracked by the safety issues because people are much more concerned about safety than they are about these socioeconomic issues.”
Ellstrand adds, “We’ve got a lot of problems in the world; we shouldn’t just arbitrarily lock away certain tools such as genetic engineering. We just have to be mindful of how we use those tools.”