The world needs GM agriculture
GM crops can boost productivity in lean times. Prince Charles was wrong to dismiss them out of hand
Julian Little
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 14 2008 11:00 BST
In 2007, 12 million farmers grew GM crops over an area of 114m hectares (281m acres) in 23 different countries. From the prairie farmers who grow GM crops across 10,000 hectares to the farmers who use this technology on less than one hectare, GM is a global reality and is used on average on areas of just less than 10 hectares.
Not quite the technology that only helps big corporations and big farmers, as suggested by Prince Charles, then. In reality, of those farmers growing GM crops, 11 million are resource-poor farmers living and working in developing countries such as South Africa, India and China. Contrary to the allegations made, many of the seeds are supplied through their own countries' institutes, and are designed to help solve problems that farmers have in growing crops for food, feed, fibres and fuel. Read More
Prince Charles gave genetically modified crops a verbal lashing yesterday when he said that they would be the biggest environmental disaster of all time. I suppose that it’s easy to say that when you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. I doubt the same response would come from someone who lives in an area where food is scarcer. GM crops are the latest advancement in plant breeding that has been going on for centuries. And since they aren’t making any more land, farmers and ranchers will need to utilize technology to increase production for a growing world population.
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