Genetic modification of food plants has great potential, if used in conjunction with other farming techniques
FEW subjects are as polarising as the genetic modification of food. Opponents of GM bandy about words like "unnatural", "invasion" and "contamination", decrying it as a technology forced upon the world by greedy corporations.
Its backers, in turn, slam such critics as "ignorant" and "irrational", holding back the development of technologies that will be needed to feed the world's expanding population.
This war of words does little to illuminate the real value - or otherwise - of GM crops. Like any technology, GM has its advantages and its problems. But a review of the available evidence (see "Hidden green benefits of genetically modified crops") suggests that it has brought a host of benefits that have received relatively little attention compared with scarier, but generally less convincing, claims about its risks.
By reducing the need for tilling, for example, GM crops have enabled farmers to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, a small but important contribution to the fight against climate change. And GM promises more: creating drought-resistant crops that will thrive in the warmer climates of the future, for instance.
So GM has the potential to do enormous good, if used in the right way. But ecological and organic farming techniques will also prove valuable. For example, insects are already becoming resistant to the toxins produced by some GM crops. Changing farming practices - by planting refuges of non-GM crops on GM farms, say - can slow the spread of resistance (Nature Biotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/nbt1382). Encouraging animals that eat pests, as organic farmers often do, is worth investigating further for reasons of both biodiversity and pesticide use.
More productive, sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture will require ideas and practices from many different agricultural traditions. The polarised debate over GM - exemplified by measures like California's Proposition 37, which would require GM food to be labelled as such - does little to advance that cause. The farms of the future will have to produce more food than ever before, while doing less damage to the environment. Squaring that circle will take every trick in the book.
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