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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn

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  • From: Andy Fellenz <artisanfarms AT gmail.com>
  • To: thamnophis AT gmail.com, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn
  • Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:03:57 -0400

"When it comes to meeting the growing demand for food, we have only 2 choices - grow more on existing crop land or convert wildlands to ag lands."  Actually there are many choices including: changing our diet to eat lower on the food chain (ie vegetarian or less meat, or grass fed meat); growing more intensively on the space allocated to food production; taking waste out of the system - some estimates are that almost half of the food grown is wasted due to spoilage, damage, etc.. . I could go on, but hopefully the point is clear - meeting the demand for food doesn't come down to two choices.  Anyone who argues this way generally is arguing for their preferred solution.  There are a huge number of potential solutions and any honest evaluation would most likely find not one solution, but a suite of solutions each addressing different facets of the problem and challenges offered by specific locations and their climate and culture.

Finally, regarding GMO crops, everything you say may be true, but let's look at what is really being done.  The vast majority of research and commercial funding is driven towards developing crops with tolerance for pesticides.  It isn't towards improving the nutritional properties of the crop, improving yields or any of the other factors often cited.  When we start to see crops being commercialized and heavily promoted which address more than pesticide tolerance we'll start to be in a place where GMOs are being developed for more than just profit. 

Andy

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 10:11 AM, Thamnophis <thamnophis AT gmail.com> wrote:
As in most cases, there is not a single, broad answer that is correct in all cases. There are areas, crops and circumstances that would best benefit from organic and/or non-GMO approaches, but as the gene manipulation improves there will be many areas and circumstances where GMO solutions will save thousands of lives.

One of our biggest looming problems both nationally and globally is water availability. Drought resistant GMO crops can help alleviate that potentially destabilizing problem. Other GMO crops are being developed to address large scale vitamin deficiencies - see Golden Rice, for example.

When it comes to meeting the growing demand for food, we have only 2 choices - grow more on existing crop land or convert wildlands to ag lands. As GMOs can boost production, their use will save millions of acres of forests, etc.

I'm not thrilled with GMOs, but from where I sit, they have the potential for much good. I think their upside sometimes gets drowned out by critics.

Joe
Boone County, IA




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