“The position I took at the time was that we hadn't really examined any of the potential environmental consequences of introducing genetically modified organisms.”
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It may be that everything the life science companies are telling us will turn out to be right, and there's no problem here whatsoever. That defies logic.
What I'm suggesting to you is that this could be a renaissance. We may be on the cusp of a future which could provide a tremendous leap forward for humanity.
What's different here is that we have now technologies that allow these life science companies to bypass classical breeding. That's what makes it both powerful and exciting.
Back in 1983, the United States government approved the release of the first genetically modified organism. In this case, it was a bacteria that prevents frost on food crops.