GM Foods

No I am not talking about general motors foods, I am talking about genetically modified foods. This appears to be quite an issue at the moment due to food safety concerns about GM foods. Japan has even asked Australia to not use GM foods. Even the TV was bombarded with anti GM food advertising. This is short sighted I feel. Genetically modifying foods is something we have been doing for a long time. When we splice genes together of different wheats to get a new variety of wheat it is the same as getting two different genes from plants to boost drought resistance. In principal it is the same, and GM foods do need to go through a rigorous safety screening.

Now I admit nothing is fool proof and mistakes may happen yet I feel the risks associated with GM foods are outweighed by the benefits. Some of the existing benefits include increasing vitamin/ mineral content of foods and higher yielding crops. Presently, I am working on Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and methane and nitrous oxides are big problems less focussed on in the context of climate change. I feel that GM technology really can help with cutting back these gas emissions. Perhaps scientists can make crops less nitrogen dependent, rice that emits less methane when growing, and my personal favourite cows that fart less.

The economist this week presented the map below showing the top 10 producers (by million hectares [1 hectare = 1000 m2]) of GM foods worldwide and countries that have adopted them. As the accompanying story suggests, Europe may no longer be able to keep out GM foods as trade regulations are forcing changes.