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  • From: "Joe Kames" <farfish AT francomm.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] A Gene Revolution
  • Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 00:15:04 -0400

This is an interesting perspective from an editorial in yesterday's New York
Times.

A Call for a Gene Revolution

Published: May 24, 2004


New scientific developments have provoked more shouting than genetically
modified foods. Plenty of people, especially in Europe, call them
Frankenfoods and argue that we do not know if they cause cancer or fatal
allergy. Genetically modified crops, which carry transplanted genes from
other species to make them easier to grow or more nutritious, should indeed
be the subject of intense debate - just not this debate.
Are these foods safe to eat? The evidence is overwhelming that they are, a
conclusion endorsed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
last week in its 2004 annual report. The report's main contribution is that
it focuses on the real problem with genetically modified crops: they are not
aimed at helping the world's hungry.
The F.A.O.'s laudable message is that farmers in Africa struggling with a
patch of millet, cowpeas or cassava - armed only with a hoe and a prayer -
need crops engineered to resist drought or local pests. Agriculture is the
livelihood of 70 percent of the world's poor, a population that is growing
considerably, even as soil and water are becoming depleted. Billions are
already malnourished because their staple crops supply few nutrients.
Genetic engineering can help on both counts.
The poor need a "gene revolution" to follow the 1960's "green revolution,"
which helped hundreds of millions by increasing the yields of wheat, rice
and other crops. But so far, there's only been a gene revolution for
agribusiness. The genetically engineered food industry is controlled by a
few corporations, such as Monsanto and DuPont. They have little incentive to
work on crops poor people grow, or to share their licensed technology. To
allow widespread research on poor-country crops, these companies must
release the technology for humanitarian use.
Many poor countries, in addition, are suspicious of genetic engineering. The
F.A.O. urges them to realize its potential and welcome engineered products.
Wealthy countries must sponsor research, while critics of modified foods,
especially in Europe, need to realize that their opposition is harming the
developing world. They should be working not to ban these foods, but to put
them in the mouths of the world's hungry.





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