Gene Modified Crops Gain Traction

After being repeatedly pestered by the gene modification brigade and hit with food supply problems, other countries are softening opposition to genetically modified crops:

... Surging costs, population growth, and drought and other setbacks linked to global climate change are pressuring world food supplies, while soaring prices on the street have triggered riots and raised the number of people going hungry to more than 923 million, according to U. N. estimates.

... In Europe, Africa and Asia, governments that have resisted imports of genetically modified foods and banned growing such crops are loosening those restrictions. Meanwhile, they are pushing ahead faster with their own research, despite lingering questions over the safety of such technology. ...

One hopes that consumers in those other countries are given a choice about whether to eat GMO foods. Here in the US, the Grocery Manufacturers of America believe that as of 2003, 70 to 75 percent of processed food is derived from genetically modified plants, but there's never labeling to that effect.

The main article starts off talking with a crop researcher in China who's looking to make the genome of a cold-hardy rice species even more cold resistant. That sounds great. But will the modifications be properly tested for health effects? Will the patent agreements bankrupt farmers? Will it encourage the use of marginal land for farming, accelerating erosion? How much fossil fuel input will it need to produce its miracle yields?

These questions rarely seem to get asked about the gene modification industry in polite company. And alternatives to the food crisis, which is real and serious, that involve de-industrializing agriculture are rarely considered by government planners.

One such alternative is the use of kitchen gardens, or food forests, as some permaculturists call them. A concerted knowledge-sharing effort that brought urban and residential land into cultivation to supplement people's diets. Water and sun that would otherwise fall on bare roofs or concrete or lawns could go towards producing extra food, and these gardens can produce quite a lot of food if well planned. In poorer countries, household agriculture can provide a modest bulwark against hunger. Even in well-off Britain, the time-tested method of turning sun into protein via backyard chickens is gaining popularity, with 500,000 UK households now keeping hens for eggs.

If the goal is reducing hunger, a noble goal to be sure, there are other ways to do it than tinkering with the genome of our most important cereal crops.

Image courtesy fda.gov