About your sources: 1. GeneWatch is an NGO. They don't have any scientific credibility. 2. Taleb is an economist of sorts, he has no scientific publications o

About your sources: 1. GeneWatch is an NGO. They don't have any scientific credibility. 2. Taleb is an economist of sorts, he has no scientific publications or credentials in biosciences. Also, twitter is not a very scientific reference. 3. and 4. Blogs and arXiv publications are not peer-reviewed, and they are not generally considered scientific publications. (Of course when an arXiv manuscript is submitted and accepted to a scientific journal, then it will be.) Also about Taleb, he actually says "I, for my part, resist eating fruits not found in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean" [1], so his level of conservativeness seems to be to avoid any crop & food innovations younger than 1000 years. [1] Quoted in: http://livepaola.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/nassim-nicholas-taleb-antifragile-a-review/ http://livepaola.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/nassim-nicholas-ta... This is my point: In these matters people don't listen to the opinions of the actual scientists, but all kind of activists and preachers. Just like Randi said. You just demonstrated this.