Joe Nyhan

   This is a good start on the first writing assignment.  
   You have done a good job, for the most part, on the 
   "they say" part.  

   I have made a number of suggestions for rewording
   or rewriting things directly on a printout of the 
   paper.  Ask me what I meant if the markings are not
   clear.

   Comments:

   1. I think these summaries of two sides of the GMO
   debate are oversimplified.  I don't think Greenbaum
   and Gerstein, for instance, would stop at saying 
   "GMOs are OK" -- their main point is that the opposition
   to them has been driven more by emotion and fear than
   by the facts.  On the other hand, the issue with GMOs
   that Laskawy points out is not that they "cause more 
   work."  It's that GMO foods have not lived up to the 
   promises made for them (yet, at least), and that they
   are mainly helping big agribusinesses like Monsanto
   and Syngenta, rather than making significant contributions
   to meeting the food needs of the human population.

   2. Look at what Laskawy says more closely.  Do you think
   he would say that GMO foods ever really lived up to 
   the hype that their supporters claim for them?

   3. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "political"
   side of the sides and the plants or the fact that the
   seeds are owned by the agribusinesses.  Explain this 
   more fully and think about whether "political" is really
   the right word here.  What Monsanto and Syngenta have
   done about GMO crops really strikes me as more of 
   a business practice issue.  They have used things like
   copyright laws to consolidate their control over the 
   GMOs they create, but how is that "political?"

   PS:  One of the main points of the Laskawy article
   is that increased resistance to pesticides and herbicides 
   is negating the benefits of GMO crops.  The interesting
   point her is that that resistance develops naturally 
   through evolution.  In effect, the genomes of the
   pests and the weeds are changing in response to 
   our genetic modification of the crops.  Some people
   compare the situation to an arms race where neither
   side can ever gain a decisive advantage.