Mother Jones
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In a July 27 feature article that set the interwebs aflame, New York Times reporter Amy Harmon told the tale of a bacterial pathogen that’s stalking the globe’s citrus trees, and a Florida orange juice company’s effort to find a solution to the problem through genetic engineering.
An invasive insect called the Asian citrus psyllids carries the bacteria, known as Candidatus Liberibacter, from tree to tree, and it causes oranges and other citrus fruits to turn green and rot. “Citrus greening,” as the condition has become known, has emerged as a pest nearly wherever citrus is grown globally. Harmon reported that an “emerging scientific consensus” holds that only genetic engineering can defeat it.
Meanwhile, Michael Pollan, a prominent food industry and agribusiness critic, tweeted this:
The “2 many industry talking pts” bit earned him an outpouring of bile from GMO industry defenders (see here and here, as well as responses to Pollans’s tweet). But after digging a bit into the citrus-greening problem, I think Pollan’s pithy construction essentially nailed it. Harmon’s story does contain some unchallenged industry talking points, yet it is also an important contribution, because citrus greening might just be one of the few areas wherein GM technology might be legitimately useful.
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