Genetically modified seeds that offer drought resistance, higher yields and other benefits are being developed by scientists around the world but social and policy barriers block many of the potential innovations, according to a report in HuffingtonPost.
We shouldn’t be surprised by the presence of these challenges, said Robert T. Fraley in a blog for HuffingtonPost. Fraley is co-recipient of the 2013 World Food Prize and executive vice president and chief technology officer of Monsanto.
Innovation in the food supply has evoked strong reactions throughout recent history, Fraley said. He shared the prize with Marc Van Montagu of Belgium and Mary-Dell Chilton, of the U.S.
“But it will be a far more important honor if the decision to honor the three of us helps reset the discussion around innovation in agriculture,” Fraley said in the blog.
Working separately, the three prize recipients helped pioneer agricultural biotechnology 30 years ago by figuring out how to transfer genes from one organism into another.
“Today, genetically modified (GM) crops are being grown on about one-fourth of the world’s farmland,” Fraley said in the blog. “GM crops are helping farmers fight drought, insects, and disease. They lower farmers’ costs, improve their yields, and increase profitability. They even improve the environment.”
Innovation in the food supply evoked strong reactions when milk was first pasteurized a century ago. And it happened when Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution and founder of the World Food Prize, introduced his newly bred Mexican wheats to India and Pakistan, Fraley said. Some of Borlaug’s field trials were sabotaged. Those wheats saved hundreds of millions of people from starvation.
Borlaug used to say “You must be prepared for opposition,” Fraley said. “I think those of us who believe in the promise of biotechnology have not prepared the way we should have.
“I think all of us engaged in the struggle to feed the world need to create more understanding of the fact that the safety of our products never has been and never will be compromised. GM foods are the most thoroughly studied food products ever launched commercially.”
GMOs have been examined in more than 1,700 studies by hundreds of independent research groups and reviewed by the world’s leading scientific and medical authorities, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association, the European Commission, and the World Health Organization, Fraley said.
“The consensus is clear. As the European Commission’s review concluded, there is ‘no scientific evidence associating GMOs with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms,'” he said.
“Yet doubts remain, and we in the scientific community need to engage in meaningful conversations to address them.
“Although we have done a good job communicating with farmers, we haven’t connected as well with consumers. I am confident they will at least be open to listening to us if they know we’re listening to them.”
Fraley calls for common-ground solutions by non-government organizations, governments, universities, and companies. These solutions, he said, lie in agriculture that minimizes the environmental impact of water and land use and that reduces the risk of political disruption.
By validating biotechnology as one of the innovations that can help solve the 21st century’s challenges, the World Food Prize performed a great service, he said.
Now all stakeholders need to move the dialogue forward.
“Our ability to bridge the differences between ourselves and those who oppose the innovations we seek will make a huge difference in the food security of 9.6 billion people and the environmental well being of our planet,” he said.
Monsanto is a publicly traded American multinational chemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. It sells seeds.
