Last week, chinadialogue columnist Taige Li explored whether genetic modification can increase crop yields. Emma Hockridge responds, and argues that oil-intensive biotechnology will not ease the global food crisis.
With soaring food prices around the world, there has been a renewed recent interest in whether the world can feed itself. This question is not a new one, and many organisations have been talking about the need to radically change our food and farming system to one which is more sustainable for many years.
The current industrial agricultural system, which has been in place for around 60 years, is wholly reliant on oil- and gas-intensive inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides.
The recent spate of media attention has given the pro-genetic modification (GM) lobby an opportunity to hijack the debate and attempt to persuade people that there is some mileage in this outdated debate. Although the GM industry has been promising huge benefits as a result of this technology for many years, the truth is that none of these claimed benefits have come to fruition. GM crops do not produce higher yields, use fewer pesticides, or do anything to assist people in developing countries.
It is obviously upsetting for the GM industry – and others who have a blind faith in the capacity of complex, high-tech solutions to solve every problem – to have their beliefs challenged by reality. This is what has happened to true believers in GM crops. Out in the fields of North America, while GM crops resistant to sprays or capable of killing insects have made life simpler for big farmers, they have not – according to the US department of agriculture – increased yields. In farmer’s fields in India, GM crops have not increased yields and have sometimes failed – with catastrophic consequences.
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