Green Agriculture | July 01, 2008 |
Writing Checks Genetically Modified Crops Can't Cash
While it seems like everyone from the White House, to the major agricultural corporations, to news pundits has been pushing genetically engineered crops as a solution to the world food crisis, it also seems that no one’s really been checking up on the facts.
Recent releases have claimed that genetically modified plant strains have been lab-programmed to do everything from withstanding droughts better to massively increasing yields, but the data simply isn't there.
In fact, it appears that the majority of bio-engineered food crop strains are only modified for one purpose: to withstand glyphosate, a weed-killer found in common gardening chemicals like Roundup, though there are notable exceptions, including the beta-carotene-rich Golden Rice.
The global food crisis, which has been blamed in large part on global interest in biofuels, threatens billions of people with malnutrition and starvation. Though agribusiness has been quick to suggest its own expensive, patented products as a solution, age-old practices of crop rotation, traditional methods of plant breeding and improved fertilizers could offer at least as much potential for boosting food output in the developing world.
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Comments By Readers
I'm not sure you have your facts right. Please consider reading this <a href="http://www.gmoafrica.org/2008/06/farmers-praise-gm-crops-in-eu-study.html">article</a> which reports that farmers of genetically modified crops in Europe believe that these crops yield high. You know there are <a href="http://www.gmoafrica.org/2008/02/isaaa-reports-a-surge-in-biotech-crops-cultivation.html">about 22 countries currently growing genetically modified crops</a>. This is what I believe. It's fine to criticize the biotech industry led by <a href="http://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo/">Monsanto</a>, Syngenta and DuPont. But such criticism ought to be constructive. I think these companies are doing a good job by investing in research in crop genetic engineering. We are always being told that the world's population is on the upward trend. Unfortunately, there's no corresponding increase in land for cultivation. So, the only and better way to feed the world is to resort to technologies that boost crops yield. This is exactly what the biotech industry is doing.
I know that some people are quite passionate about organic crops. There's nothing wrong with that. They should be encouraged to practice organic farming because what the world is interested in is to see everybody has something to eat. We've a situation where millions of people go to bed hungry. This is unacceptable.
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