Masami Kojima, a journalist and former biotech critic, recently released “Extreme Misunderstanding of GM Crops” — the first Japanese science-based publication on GM crops. Kojima was an active anti-GM newspaper reporter for one of the three most popular newspapers in Japan. In the book, Kojima documents scientific information and benefits of GM crops from credible scientific studies, as well as his accounts of seeing farmers’ fields and taking tours through laboratories in the United States. He apologized for his previous anti-GMO stance and acknowledged he was wrong in writing about GM crops without understanding the truth about the technology.
The book also criticizes the media and academia in Japan for disseminating wrong information and urges them to tell stories based on science, not politics. Views from various stakeholders, including local and foreign farmers, are featured and highlight the importance of science-based understanding of GM crops, as well as safety tests of crops and foods derived from them.
