Alternatives to genetic engineering of food

Sustainable agriculture

Problems with industrial agriculture

Food biotechnology is part of industrial agriculture. This form of farming, originally developed in Europe and America, has become predominant in a large part of the world since the "green revolution" when it was introduced in developing countries. Its "ideology" is to achieve effective productivity at large scale through the use of technological means including machines, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Indeed, it appeared more effective in the short run, but now increasing numbers of complications are reported.

The ground water in regions where industrial agriculture has become increasingly contaminated by the toxic chemicals. In some parts of the USA the drinking water contamination of pesticides is so high that children before the age of 10 have been exposed to the maxium allowable "life dose" of such chemicals. Thousands of farm workers contract chronic health problems or die from the chemicals every year.

The residues of these chemicals in the food may cause cancer and other health problems. Recent research indicates that the combination of different chemicals may enhanced the harmful effect. One study indicates that when two pesticides were combined, their harmful effect was ten times stronger than the effect of each one of them if used separately. As chemicals are mostly combined in farming, this means that the present "safe" levels in food may be considerably too high. In addition, not infrequently, the concentrations of these chemicals in food are above present "safe" levels.

The nitrogen and phoshpate used in fertilizers contaminate the ground water and pollutes rivers and the sea to a problematic extent.

Experts on agriculture and ecology are realizing that this system of agriculture is unsustainable. This means that it causes accumulation of complications and harmful effects of various kinds that will ultimately make it impossible to continue with it. Already there are increasing signs of declining yields due to soil degradation in regions where this system has been used. And there are indications of harmful health effects of eating food containing these chemicals, see for example "Canadian docs call for total ban on pesticides", "Pesticide exposure and your health" and "Pesticides".

Industrial agriculture was launched without careful investigation of its environmental consequences, similarly to genetically engineered crops. Now that it has been clearly established that it is environmentally harmful and unsustainable, its continued use is not justifable considering that there are sustainable alternatives as explained below.

Agricultural economist Charles Benbrook has shown that biothechnological agriculture, using genetically engineered crops will bring US agriculture even further away from sustainability than it has been so far, see "Sustainability and Ag Biotech".

For more, see the section "Problems with industrial agriculture".

Advantages with Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture means, by definition, agriculture that does not deplete natural resources and does not use harmful, artificial substances that cumulate in the environment. Therefore, contrary to industrial agriculture, it can be applied indefinitely without harming the environment. It is the only kind of agriculture that is feasible in the long run. A common word for it is "organic farming".

Articles

• New! Organic farming can feed the world, U-M study shows. University of Michigan. 10 July 2007.

  In the third world, the yields can be as much as 80% better than that of industrial farming.

  The lead author of the study, Professor Ivette Perfecto said:

  "The idea that people would go hungry if farming went organic is "ridiculous."
  
  "Corporate interest in agriculture and the way agriculture research has been conducted in land grant institutions, with a lot of influence by the chemical companies and pesticide companies as well as fertilizer companies—all have been playing an important role in convincing the public that you need to have these inputs to produce food," she said."

• Organic Farming Will Feed the World.  This article presents evidence that it is more productive than industrial "Hi-Tech" agriculture. This is a major blow to the main argument for genetic engineering of crops. By Professor George Monbiot.
• Can organic agriculture feed the world? Ten scientists analyse the value of organic farming. They find that it has significant advantages to industrial agriculture which is unsustainable due to incremental environmental damage. Moreover it has ruined millions of third world farmers because of its dependence on costly fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. While providing as good or better yields, organic farming has no harmful environmental impact and does not demand costly external inputs making it ideal for poor farmers in developing countries.

  "The benefits of organic farming systems are relevant both to developed nations (environmental protection, biodiversity enhancement, reduced energy use and CO2 emissions) and to developing countries (sustainable resource use, increased crop yields without over-reliance on costly external inputs, environmental and biodiversity protection)."

• The sustainable approach to agriculture Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

• Sustainable Agriculture -- A New Vision. A vison of the possibilities. By UCS.

• What is Sustainable Agriculture? University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program

• "Sustainability and Ag Biotech". A condensate of the analysis of agricultural economist Charles Benbrook resulting in the conclusion that GE agriculture brings US agriculture even further away from sustainability than it has been so far.
• Links to some sustainable agriculture related sites.

Genomics

Genomics is the science of gene mapping. The technology has developed rapidly in recent years and has made it possible to make complete gene maps of organisms. It is expected to be of great value for breeding. In conventional breeding the search for best crossing partners is a tedious and very time consuming trial and error procedure. With genomics it is possible to select breeding partners on the basis of gene maps. According experts on genomics, it can reduce the number of crossing trials very substantially.

Articles

• Who Controls and Who Will Benefit from Plant Genomics? By Dr. Charles Benbrook.