Former Anti-GMO Environmental Activist Now Defender Of Technology

(DTN) -- Mark Lynas went from hiding out and destroying trial GMO fields in the dark of night, to a world-renown defender of technology to help solve hunger around the world. The British journalist turned semi-scientist Lynas said when he decided to search out the science of GMOs it was a turning point in his life. The self-described former anti-GMO environmental radical said during a presentation as part of the Heuermann lecture series at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Monday that science ultimately changed his mind. "I used to not produce crops, I used to destroy them," he said. "I used to think something was inescapably evil about the technology. I was out in the field destroying multiple kinds of crops. I went out into maize fields and used a machete to destroy corn and other crops. It was perhaps the most successful environmental campaign I was involved in. I succeeded in ushering in a prohibitionary regime." Lynas said he believes the current fear of GMOs in some circles "became symbolic of people's concerns about the food system in general. "The food system in rich countries doesn't keep people as healthy as it should. Concerns about big ag ownership of chemicals became identified with GMOs. "It wasn't until I morphed into the understanding of science, that it was a different way of looking at the evidence, that I realized everything Greenpeace had in the literature wasn't true. It was an eye-opener. "What people will need to help dispel the fear is transparency. What dispels fear is a sense of urgency. The solution to this is a radical degree of transparency." GMO WORK Lynas wrote what is believed to be the first anti-GMO piece in the literature in Great Britain. He once snuck into a research center in Britain where he believed "Dolly" the human-created sheep was being housed. The plan was to kidnap her and end the research, but the plan failed. Lynas said his environmental campaigns exported fears about GMOs around the world. In 1999, Lynas said he began to look at climate change science and became convinced it is real. It was that pursuit, he said, that led him to apply the same approach to GMOs. Lynas then went on to write and publish books and make numerous media appearances touting what he believed was sound science proving the effects of climate change. In June 2008, Lynas wrote what was his final anti-GMO article for The Guardian in the United Kingdom. He began exploring the actual science on GMOs. "When I was an anti-GMO activist I didn't consider science," Lynas said. When he began writing his 2011 book "The God Species," Lynas said he challenged himself to take the same tact to explore the science behind GMOs. Instead, for the first time in his life Lynas said he found something entirely unexpected. "I couldn't find anything" to support his anti-GMO position, he said, "but I didn't' want to come out and admit it." When he learned GMOs are genetically altered to improve drought tolerance, fight pests and reduce fertilizer use and runoff in agriculture, Lynas said he knew his life was about to change. "I realized I had made a huge mistake," he said. "From that moment on I wanted to make an attempt to make it right." After touring the world and observing how GMO crops could help hungry populations, Lynas said he understood the use of GMOs was needed as a tool for change. TURNING TO SCIENCE In 2012 Lynas went to work with scientists at the Rothamsted Research Institute in the UK, focusing on field trials of GMO wheat that emits the so-called insect alarm pheromone to ward off pests. "I wanted to work behind the scenes to help scientists figure out a response strategy, an emotional appeal to activists to not destroy" GMO crops, he said. Lynas told the activists "if you destroy the crop we'll never know whether it worked," he said. "The scientists prepared to put a human face on this." The anti-GMO activists' decided against plans to destroy the crops after losing in the court of public opinion. "The pheromone failed to repel aphids," Lynas said. "Isn't that great science? If they had been destroyed we wouldn't have known whether they worked." In 2013 Lynas was asked to speak to an agriculture audience in Oxford, England. "I had to say something publicly and I apologized for destroying GMO crops," he said. "I knew my life was going to change." From that time on Lynas has become an internationally known advocate of science. "You have to look at the totality of evidence on an issue," he said. "If I'm going to defend the scientific side of climate change I couldn't be inconsistent" on GMOs. "GMOs are safe," Lynas said. WORLD TRAVELS He now travels the world studying the role GMOs can play in solving various food challenges. In some areas of the world he has seen ongoing field trials of GMOs fenced off and kept away from the populace with padlocks -- simply out of fear perpetuated by local governments, Lynas said. "It illustrated a reality -- that something labeled GMO can't get to a farmer and can't be used to feed hungry children," he said. "As a parent I realized I had some culpability in the situation. If I had not founded the anti-GMO movement ... I decided I needed to work to bring their perspectives into the debate." CORNELL WORK Lynas currently is a visiting fellow at Cornell University's Alliance for Science, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The alliance is focused on giving voices to the potential beneficiaries of agricultural science and biotechnology in developing countries, through forming alliances with non-governmental organizations. "It is incredible to me that people who call themselves environmentalists would be out there opposing crops that would reduce the use of pesticides," Lynas said. "People link GMOs to diseases ... For me this is a profound injustice. Insecurities are exported to people in food-insecure nations."