GMOs and organics can alleviate food crises

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei, a prolific blogger who I adore for her articulation of science issues, has posted an article about a new book on how crop genetic engineering - combined with organic farming - can enhance global food sustainability.

The book titled, Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetic, and the Future, is written by two renowned experts in agriculture: Pamela Ronald of University of California - Davis and R. A. Adamchak. (By the way, Pamela Donald has a new blog called Tomorrow’s Table which I wrote about two weeks ago.)

Their book argues that the world stands to gain a lot from judicious incorporation of crop genetic engineering and organic farming. I’m very excited by this statement and I totally agree with them.

“We are not suggesting that organic farming and genetic engineering alone will provide all the changes needed in agriculture,” the two researchers say in the book.

What a powerful statement! Since I started authoring this blog three years ago, I’ve been arguing that every option must be explored to ensure each one of us has enough food to eat.

I underscored this point three weeks ago when I participated in a BBC World Have Your Say program on how to handle the current food crisis. In the program, I said there’s no silver bullet to solving the current food crisis. I criticized people who want to demonize agricultural biotechnology and corporations that make genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as Monsanto and DuPont. I said their argument miss the point because it negates the need for industrializing our agriculture. Additionally, they don’t usually base their such argument on any provable science.

On the same breath I stated that if organic agriculture will prevent a family in Africa from going to bed hungry, let it be it. It’d would be wrong, I said, to ridicule people who feel organic farming will solve their problems. Entitled they’re to their views: their freedom to choose what to eat ought to be respected.

The trouble is, the very same people I defended want those of us who don’t agree with them to throw crop genetic engineering under the bus and embrace, enmasse, organic food. This can’t and won’t happen. It’s pure fantasy. We need both approaches to deal with food shortages.

Genetically modified crops have their supporters. If you look at statistics, there is quite a good number of people – and the number is increasing – cultivating genetically modified crops (Read my earlier post on this issue.)

There are, I am sure, farmers who are gravitating towards organic farming. They should be allowed to do so. Unfortunately, proponents of organic farming want the world to believe that there is nothing good that can come out of crop genetic engineering. That’s why they’ve been waging a relentless campaign to make food from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) look bad. Isn’t it the time for these folks to tone down their rhetoric and allow people choose what they want to eat and plant?

Organic foods have their own flip sides. A recent article in the New York Times, for instance, detailed how these foods have become out of reach for ordinary people because of their high prices. We need to be open-minded when debating the future of food. Let’s not engage in indoctrination where we tell the public this or that agricultural technology will be the only solution to today’s food crisis. To ensure future food sustainability, every option must be put on the table.