What, a herd of cattle were poisoned by cyanide in Texas?? The culprit had to be a genetically-modified form of Bermuda grass! Stupid scientists are out to kill us all with their right-wing, corporation-y greed.
Only if you get your science from CBS. Or Sierra Club. Or gullible commenters here on Science 2.0.
The Tifton 85 grass was indeed 'producing' cyanide - cyanide is a naturally occurring plant poison - it just isn't genetically-modified grass. It's instead the "genetic modification" done for thousands of years before scientists could precisely control genes; a hybrid. A regular ol' hybrid used for decades that the anti-science fringe thinks is 'natural'.
The latest GM scare journalism was certainly brought to the big stage by CBS but mostly spread by anti-GM bloggers who didn't bother to do even the simplest fact-checking.
Not everyone fell for it. Grist got the science right.
Deborah Blum defends science from the anti-science fringe at Knight Science Journalism Tracker.
Only if you get your science from CBS. Or Sierra Club. Or gullible commenters here on Science 2.0.
The Tifton 85 grass was indeed 'producing' cyanide - cyanide is a naturally occurring plant poison - it just isn't genetically-modified grass. It's instead the "genetic modification" done for thousands of years before scientists could precisely control genes; a hybrid. A regular ol' hybrid used for decades that the anti-science fringe thinks is 'natural'.
The latest GM scare journalism was certainly brought to the big stage by CBS but mostly spread by anti-GM bloggers who didn't bother to do even the simplest fact-checking.
Not everyone fell for it. Grist got the science right.
Deborah Blum defends science from the anti-science fringe at Knight Science Journalism Tracker.
