Ronald Bailey commits lesè majesté

Ronald Bailey isn't expecting royal honours after Prince Charles ascends the throne:

His Royal Highness, the Dunce of Wales, Speaks Against Biotech Crops

[. . .] There's a tremendous amount of anti-biotech misinformation packed into this interview. First and foremost, farmers in both developed and developing countries will not adopt biotech crops unless they benefit from them, either from greater productivity, fewer input costs, improved sustainability or all three.

Let's consider just a few cases: Biotech insect-resistant corn in the Philippines boosted yields by 37 percent, reduced the costs of insecticide spraying by 60 percent, maintained populations of beneficial insects in the fields, and increased farmers' profits by 88 percent. With regard to sustainability, herbicide-resistant biotech crops make soil saving no-till farming more possible and new varieties of biotech rice reduce the run-off of nitrogen fertilizer that can damage waterways. Finally, His Royal Witless ignores the fact that of the 12 million farmers who have adopted biotech crops, 11 million of them are resource-poor farmers working in developing countries.

For all that some might say that Prince Charles has his heart in the right place, he's clearly got his facts from some alternate universe . . .

Update: Commenter "ChrisH" wraps it up wonderfully well:

Who'da thunk? Diana was the sharp tool in that toolshed.

I like the "peasants — back to your farms!" tone of some of it. Uh, I think you lost that argument 200 years ago.

But then, this:
dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness

My gawd, the man is a poet. I don't even know what it means, but I want to set it to music.

There are very few people who could have played "Yo Mama so..." with Bill Buckley, but apparently Prince Chuck is one of them.

Decent watercolorist, as well, I hear...