GM FOOD: THE PRO SIDE

GM Food: The Newest Promised Land
By Ivete dos Santos

Organic food is an oasis among a huge number of foods that were grown with the use of fertilizers and pesticides. No doubt the taste is better and whoever can afford those expensive products usually buys them. Nonetheless, how can we feed seven billion people in the world without enough productive land available? The World Health Organization predicts that, in 2025, the population in the world will increase by 38% while the good productive land will remain in only 1% of the total land in the world. In the past, when people in some countries in Europe - Italy, Ireland, Germany - were dying of hunger, they had a possibility to try a trip to the “New World”, such as South America and North America, and found good soil to plant and harvest their food. However, nowadays, there is no more wild and undiscovered land. Each corner of the Earth and its potential natural riches are known. Thus, scientists, governments and big private groups, as Monsanto, Bayer, Novartis, Basf, just to mention some of them, have started research to find other kinds of solutions to avoid world-wide starvation. Genetically modified crops have appeared to solve this foretold tragedy.

Although some groups such a Greenpeace are radically against GM food because, according to them, among other reasons, it might create unpredicted allergies, toxins, antibiotic resistant diseases and nutritional problems, the fact is that there is no relevant event that justifies the prohibition of those products. Just to mention the USA, three agencies are involved in the regulation of food crops - the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). GM crops have been commercialized since 1994 without serious disease problems and the truth is that mankind has never lived so well. The life expectancy has increased in the world, even in Africa, the poorest continent, according to the economist Indur M . Gloklany in his book The Improving State of the World, which mentions that not only are people living longer but healthier in old age. Moreover, the history of agriculture shows that in 1900 the USA consumed about three million and seven hundred tons of fertilizer per year (www.j3sael.blogspot.com/). Therefore, at least, these products didn’t cause a catastrophe in human health as the research shows about the improvement of life expectancy in the world.

Despite the GM opponents’ beliefs that the use of GM crops can cause social problems like losing jobs in farming, the fact is that the use of these techniques is helping to improve the quality of life of people directly involved in the cultivation and harvest: “We could liberate so many people if our crops were resistant to herbicides that we could then spray on the surrounding weeds. Weeding enslaves Africans; it keeps them out from school.” – said Florence Wambugu, a Kenyan plant scientist. Furthermore, in Delmas, South Africa, the landscape that before served gold mines, now is used to cultivate Bt corn crops with success (www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article). Another good example of the success of Bt corn crops comes from Malawi. From 2005 to 2007, this country tripled its production and became the major food exporter in Southern Africa, which improved the life of its citizens(wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_organism). If GM food improves life of poorest countries, it means that they will become wealthier. As a result, their people will not move to another country looking for a better life. Consequently, illegal immigration can decrease, avoiding social problems in countries such the USA, which is facing illegal immigration issues.

“Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is.” – said the former US president Jimmy Carter. In fact, starvation is still killing a huge number of people around the world. Because of the lack of Vitamin A, one million children die every year and malnutrition contributes to 53% of the 9.7 million deaths of children under five in developing countries (Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, UNICEF). Against facts, nobody can fight. However, there is hope: GM foods can help to change this terrible reality. They have success in growing crops in poor soil; there are GM crops that can improve the nutrients in food - rice with Vitamin A; there are drought-resistant seeds that can help countries in Africa that suffer from lack of water. Definitely, GM crops can help end world hunger!

Unlike the way some people believe, there are serious and large nonprofit groups that are embracing the GM food idea. The Bill & Mellinda Gates Foundation, recognized for its philanthropic work around the world, is directly involved with the use of GM food as a solution against starvation. Recently, it has been funding research that is using technology from biotech giant Monsanto Co. to engineer corn that is much more resistant to drought. Moreover, this foundation has financed the research of rice, with the Rockefeller Foundation and biotech firm Syrgenta. Although some people are condemning Bill Gates because of his support of these two big groups, he says that he is thinking about saving lives. (http://www.gaia-health.com/articles101/000107-Gates-GMO-Children-Guinea-Pigs.shtml). Additionally, Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred are working with scientists to increase production of wheat and corn, at the research center that has been associated with Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Norman Borlaug, who is considered the father of the Green Revolution. http://groups.google.com/group/dcfoodforall/browse_thread/thread/4a6a8e21f56121f1

Some people are against GM food because they argue that the industry is monopolized by big groups that can control the food in the world. Nevertheless, we cannot turn our back on starvation due to the fear of the hypothesis that food would be control by a few hands. There are special departments in each country responsible for conducting the regulation and approval of those foods, and there are nonprofit organizations that oversee those groups as well. Moreover, if it were a good reason, what could one say about the big medicine laboratories that manipulate drugs? Should we ask them to stop researching because they can control the medicine in the world? Thus, the solution is not to be against GM food; instead, people have to take heed, and governments must create laws to protect the public interests.

In conclusion, although “the new” has always scared people, step by step, they will understand that GM food helps to avoid the death of billions of people that do not have the same opportunity to eat a delicious vegetable from an organic farm or drink its milk. For them, GM food is synonymous with life; it is the “New World”; the Promised Land, as it was for our ancestors when they came to North and South America. Had they not believed in the New World, most of us would not be here. Now, history repeats itself but on a large scale for those billions of people who have nothing but hope “…that perches in the soul” and in the soil. Who dares to deny it to them?