Anti-GMO activists, like the multi-national group Green­­­peace, often proclaim that they oppose biotechnology and GMO crops because they want to protect small-scale indigen­ous farmers, as well as the environment, from large-multi-national agribusiness companies. But the groups’ actions often don’t match their rhetoric, according to a Cornell University official who spoke recently in Des Moines.

A good example: The actions by Greenpeace and other...