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| quote: | Originally posted by djjoshuaallen
our overpopulated world requires genetically engineered farming tactics in order to supply food. |
source: http://earthopensource.org/files/pd..._Truths_1.3.pdf
"GM crops are promoted as a way of solving world hunger at a time when the population is expected to increase. But it is difficult to see how GM can contribute to solving world hunger when there are no GM crops available that increase intrinsic yield (see Section 5). Nor are there any GM crops that are better than non-GM crops at tolerating poor soils or challenging climate conditions.
Instead, most currently available GM crops are engineered for herbicide tolerance or to contain a pesticide, or both. The two major GM crops, soy and maize, mostly go into animal feed, biofuels to power cars, and processed human food – products for developed nations that have nothing to do with meeting the basic food needs of the poor and hungry. GM corporations are answerable to their shareholders and thus are interested in profitable commodity markets, not in feeding the poor and hungry.
Even if a GM crop did appear that gave higher yields than non-GM crops, this would not impact the problem of hunger. This is because the root cause of hunger is not a lack of food, but a lack of access to food. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, we already produce more than enough food to feed the world’s population and could produce enough with existing agricultural methods to feed 12 billion people.1 The problem is that the poor have no money to buy food and increasingly, no access to land on which to grow it. Hunger is a social, political, and economic problem, which GM technology cannot address. GM is a dangerous distraction from real solutions and claims that GM can help feed the world can be viewed as exploitation of the suffering of the hungry.
GM crops are promoted as necessary to feed the world’s growing population. But it seems unlikely that they could make a significant contribution as they do not deliver higher yields or produce more with less inputs than non-GM crops.
Most GM crops are engineered to tolerate herbicides or to express a pesticide – properties that are irrelevant to solving hunger.
Hunger is not caused by a lack of food in the world. It is a problem of distribution and poverty, which GM cannot solve.
The IAASTD report, authored by over 400 international experts, concluded that the key to food security lay in agroecological farming methods. The report did not endorse GM, noting that yields were “variable” and that better solutions were available.
Agroecological farming has resulted in significant yield and income benefits to farmers in the Global South, while preserving soil for future generations.
GM is not needed to feed the world. Conventional plant breeding has already delivered crops that are high-yielding, disease- and pest-resistant, tolerant of drought and other climatic extremes, and nutritionally enhanced – at a fraction of the cost of GM."
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