OPINION/COMMENTARY

The Toxic Politics of Biotech

How far does grass pollen travel? Ask someone who has hay fever, and the response is likely to be "much too far." But unsatisfied with that answer, the folks at our Environmental Protection Agency decided they needed an elaborate experiment—which they performed with a gene-spliced, herbicide-resistant grass. They found that the pollen spread more than a dozen miles downwind, farther than previously had been measured. Predictably, the results have been blown out of all proportion by hot air from anti-biotechnology activists. Hard-core opponents of biotechnology are practically giddy with delight. "This does confirm what a lot of people feared—expected, really," said Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Well, she's right about one thing: There is nothing about this study's results that were unexpected. In fact, finding that pollen is blown downwind is a revelation on a par with the discovery that you get wet if you venture outside in a thunderstorm....