GM Crops
Only a decade after their commercial introduction, genetically modified (”GM”) crops are now cultivated in 22 countries on an area more than 4 times the size of Britain, by over 10 million farmers, of whom 9 million are resource-poor farmers in developing countries, mainly India and China. Most of these small-scale farmers grow pest-resistant GM cotton. In India, production tripled last year. GM cotton benefits farmers because it reduces the need for insecticides, thereby increasing their income and improving their health.
Every academy of science — the Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian, French and US academies as well as the UK’s Royal Society — has confirmed that there is no evidence of risk to human health from GM crops. In 2001, the research directorate of the EU commission released a summary of 81 scientific studies financed the EU, and conducted over a 15-year period: none found evidence of harm to humans or to the environment.
Researchers at PG Economics studied the global effects of GM crops (”Global Impact of Biotech Crops“), and concluded that the “environmental impact” of pesticide and herbicide use in GM-growing countries had been reduced by 15% and 20% respectively. Energy-intensive cultivation is being replaced by no-till or low-till agriculture. More than a 1/3 of the soya bean crop grown in the US is now grown in unploughed fields. Apart from using less energy, avoiding the plough improves soil quality, causes less disturbance to life within it and diminishes the emission of methane and other greenhouse gases. The study concluded that “the carbon savings from reduced fuel use and soil carbon sequestration in 2005 were equal to removing 4m cars from the road….”
James Lovelock has estimated that if all farming became organic, we would only be able to feed 1/3 the present world population.
“The real GM food scandal,” by Dick Taverne