Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 22 Oct 09;
LONDON - The world needs genetically modified crops both to increase food yields and minimize the environmental impact of farming, Britain's top science academy said on Wednesday.
The Royal Society said in a report the world faced a "grand challenge" to feed another 2.3 billion people by 2050 and at the same time limit the environmental impact of the farm sector.
The world will have to increase food output by 70 percent and invest $83 billion annually in developing countries by mid-century, the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization said earlier this month.
"The problem is such an acute one, doing that sustainably without eroding soil, overusing fertilizers is an enormous challenge," said the chair of the Royal Society report, Cambridge University's David Baulcombe.
"There isn't a lot more land to use," he told Reuters. "And from the point of expense and using fossil fuels, we want to use less fertilizer."
"The food supply problem is likely to come to a head 10, 20, 30 years from now," he said, adding this didn't leave much time given the research lead time to develop new crops.
The answer would be a range of approaches from hi-tech genetically modified crops to low-tech management approaches such as sowing grass around maize to divert pests, as well as preserving the diversity of natural, wild crop varieties.
Farming indirectly, including deforestation, accounts for a third of greenhouse gases, say scientists, underlining the problem of increasing production simply by clearing more land or using more fertilizers, the biggest source of a powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.
RESEARCH
Britain had to invest an extra 50 ($82.13 million) to 100 million pounds annually in research to boost innovation in a sector which had lost allure following food over-supply in Europe, the report said.
A combination of changing diets, growing population, demand for farmland for biofuels and high energy prices have stoked food prices and renewed interest in agriculture.
Wednesday's report invoked the successes of the Green Revolution of the 1960s, but aimed for a more sustainable approach. That revolution had more than doubled food output over 30 years but had also degraded soils in some cases.
The world must develop over the next 16 years through genetic modification and conventional breeding varieties of crops resistant to disease, drought, salinity, heat and toxic heavy metals, the report said.
Progress in DNA-sequencing had made more plant genes available for engineering, improving the predictability of results in a "second generation" GM approach. "We're looking at a different base than 10 years ago," said Baulcombe.
A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has pushed more than 1 billion people into hunger in 2009, U.N. agencies said last week, confirming a grim forecast released earlier this year.
The Pressure group Greenpeace said GM crops were a costly distraction from tackling hunger through fighting poverty and helping smallholders in developing countries sell their product.
"Poverty and hunger are the same thing," said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace's European GM policy director, who pointed out that the world already produced enough to feed itself, if that were shared fairly and there was less waste.
(Editing by James Jukwey)
Chief scientist says it would be 'unwise' not to develop GM crops in Britain
Genetically modified (GM) food is an essential tool to help tackle the "perfect storm" of climate change and rising population, the Government's chief scientist has warned.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 20 Oct 09;
Professor John Beddington said the world will have to produce 50 per cent more food by 2030 in order to feed the growing population.
He said the only way to do this is to grow more crops on less land by using the latest scientific innovation, including crops genetically modified to be drought or disease resistant.
"This is such a problem that you cannot say we will not use GM technology - that would be really unwise," he said.
His comments come as a new Royal Society report also recommends GM crops to tackle the impending food crisis.
The report entitled 'Reaping the Benefits: Towards a Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture' is expected to suggest that GM crops could even be grown in Britain.
GM has recently come back onto the political agenda. The first trial in a year was recently re-started in Leeds, with the Government's support, and a recent report on food security from the Deparment for the Enviroment, Food and Rural Affairs backed further research into the technology.
But environmentalists insist the science is not proven and foods made from GM crops or "Frankenstein Foods" may be bad for human health.
Speaking at a global food summit, organised by the not-for-profit environmental research centre CABI, Professor Beddington said science will be the only way to feed the world in the future.
He said that by 2030 the world will have to produce 50 per cent more food and energy, together with 30 per cent more available fresh water, whilst adapting the floods and drought caused by climate change.
Prof Beddington said Britain could lead the way in developing the new technology - although he said it would be difficullt to grow GM crops in Britain because of activists ripping up the plants.
"Ten years ago, when GM was first started, people were understandably worried about about health and environmental impacts. But I think current regulations mean those risks are now mitigated," he said.
Dr Julian Little, Chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, said 13 million farmers are already growing GM on 125 million hectares around the world.
"If we are serious about producing more food off less land, we do not have much choice but to use new biotechnology, including GM," he said.
But Clare Oxborrow, Senior Food Campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said the Government was in danger of being blinded by "the white heat of technology" and putting human and environmental health at risk.
"We do have a 'perfect storm' with the impending food crisis, climate change and the recent economic crisis," she said. "It might seem like the perfect opportunity for the bio-tech industry to promote its products but the drivers of this crisis are so complex and need to be tackled at a fundamental level - just the thought that GM can solve this or play an important part is pie in the sky."
How will farmers feed the world in the future?
A new report argues that scientists should use every method available to boost food production in the next 20 years. But what options are there other than GM?
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 21 Oct 09;
:: Traditional techniques: Crop rotation, natural fertilisers and other methods have been used for generations. However there are a number of ways to boost these techniques, for example by experimenting with types of clover to fix nitrogen in the soil or using fertiliser derived from food waste.
:: Using nature: Plants that attract predators such as lady birds to eat other insects can be used as insecticide. Plants that inject certain nutrients in the soil can be planted among a crop in order to provide a natural fertiliser.
:: Plant breeding: As understanding of the plant genome increases it not only enables scientists to artificially move genes about, but can also help natural methods of breeding to create new plants. The development of "floating rice plants" that are more able to withstand floods was through selective breeding.
:: Irrigation: Water stress will be a serious problem in the future due to urbanisation and population growth. Much more efficient methods of irrigation could be developed using rain water and recycling run off from fields, as well as using less water hungry plants in dry areas.
:: New varieties of crops: Scientists are still discovering new varieties of plants that provide opportunities for breeding new crops. For example there are thousands of varieties of rice that are enabling farmers to grow crops more appropriate to each environment. This also helps to maintain different breeds that would otherwise be in danger of dying out.
