Early in the 19th century, bands of English weavers called Luddites went about smashing mechanical looms in a futile attempt to stop the Industrial Revolution and save their jobs. They were wrong, of course. The Industrial Revolution created millions of jobs and raised living standards around the world.

But being wrong hasn’t stopped the Luddites. A coalition of modernday Luddites opposed to pesticides and modern farming methods recently convinced the Board of Pesticide Control to ban genetically engineered corn in Maine. Unfortunately, by becoming the first state in the nation to ban the corn, Maine sent a chilling message to the fast-growing biotechnology industry that is revolutionizing medicine and agriculture.

The corn in question contains an extra gene that makes it resistant to the European corn borer, a caterpillar that eats through the stalks. Every year the European corn borer damages 40 million tons of corn and costs farmers an estimated $1 billion.

To solve the problem, scientists extracted a gene from Bt, a naturally occurring bacteria which is lethal to the corn borer, and spliced it into corn plants. When the corn borer starts chewing on the Bt-containing corn, it dies. In short, instead of having to spray the insecticide on the corn, the plant produces its own. Apart from the corn borer and related caterpillars, Bt is completely harmless to humans, animals and insects. The controversy arises because the Bt gene isn’t naturally found in corn, but was put there using genetic engineering techniques.

Bt corn has undergone years of testing in thousands of test plots in the United States. It is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and 47 other states. Canada, Japan and many European countries also have approved Bt corn. Yet, Maine’s Pesticide Control Board chose to ignore the facts and listen instead to fanciful scenarios for genetic mayhem should the Bt gene somehow escape from the corn.

The decision of the Board of Pesticide Control was deeply flawed. Instead of considering the reams of scientific evidence supporting the safety of Bt corn (the data presented to the EPA alone filled 18 volumes), the board listened instead to “junk science” advanced by special interests. Instead of listening to farmers who want to plant Bt corn, the board said it was not needed in Maine. Instead of guiding Maine into the future, the board showed it is firmly mired in the past.

Biotechnology — the science that produced Bt corn — is a fast-growing industry that provides high-paying jobs. Massachusetts is home to scores of biotechnology companies. North Carolina, which aggressively recruits biotechnology companies, has attracted more than 70 firms employing 18,000 people. Maine has a small but solid community of health care, agriculture and veterinary biotechnology companies. The growth potential of biotechnology caught the attention of Gov. Angus King who made biotechnology one of Maine’s targets for growth when he unveiled his economic development strategy a year ago.

For would-be biotechnology entrepreneurs the action of the Board of Pesticide Control is not encouraging. In the high-stakes competition of new business, Maine already suffers from its out-of-the-way location and high taxes. Add to that muddleheaded bureaucrats and Maine’s attractiveness to biotechnology companies is sure to suffer.

Douglas R. Johnson is a partner in GreenTree Communications, a biotechnology public relations firm in Stonington.