Sir John Beddington, a population biologist and scientific advisor, has appeared in the press voicing his support for GM produce. Beddington has been tasked with leading the team behind Global Food and Farming Futures, the report published today and commissioned by the Department of Business.

Climate change, food shortages and an increase in global population are all reasons Beddington cites to adopt GM technologies, with claims that GM crops could be more resistant to salination and drought; conditions which can be expected as results of climate change.

Beddington stressed on Sunday (23^rd Jan) that “There will be no silver bullet”, but went on to say, “It is very hard to see how it would be remotely sensible to justify not using new technologies such as GM.” He explained that based on current trends, “by 2030 more than 60% of the population will be living in cities and will no longer be involved in growing crops or raising domestic animals.”

The report also suggests we will require 40% more food, 30% more water and 50% more energy by the middle of the century in order to grow adequate amounts of food. John Beddington has remarked, "We could cut down tropical rain forests and plant crops on the savannahs to grow more food, but that would leave us even more vulnerable to the impact of global warming and climate change. We needed these regions to help absorb carbon dioxide emissions, after all."

However, these comments appear to ignore the growing interest in preserving small-scale farming methods with local knowledge and ecoagricultural practices. With publications such as the 2008 ISTAD report and the recently published Worldwatch State of the World report maintain that these models are the most resilient, highest yielding longitudinally and most environmentally sound.

Concerns of GMOs

 As well as widespread fears of potential long-term effects to humans and the environment from under-tested GMOs, as demonstrated by their soubriquet ‘Frankenstein foods’, those opposed to GM produce have expressed other reasons behind their consternation over the renewed bid to see the crops introduced in the EU.

 Many detractors state that there are concerns over the fact that GM crops are the property of a few companies, saying their adoption would lead farmers into bondage to these companies, and that due to cross pollination, organic growing cannot co-exist with GM crops; they use Canada as an example, where due to cross-pollination it is now impossible to cultivate organic rapeseed.

Tewolde Berhan, spokesperson for the Africa Group and director of Ethiopia’s Environmental Protection Authority has described the current arguments in favour of adopting GM technology as “a very cheap ploy”. In 2009 Berhan said “GM technology is not good for us. And, contrary to the claims of the GM lobby, these crops would... enslave Africa once more – particularly because of the patenting aspect”.

Furthermore, there is an argument that a lack of food is not at the root cause of hunger. The Global Food and Farming Futures report supports this in that it estimates a third of the world’s food is currently being wasted, and that halving food waste by 2050 would have the same effect as increasing food production today by 25 per cent.

Friends of the Earth food campaigner Sandra Bell said “Thirty years of research and development into GM has not delivered the solutions we need in terms of feeding people who are hungry and solving the problems of malnutrition.”

European Reactions

 Most meat and dairy animals in this country are already fed GM soy, therefore most supermarkets cannot guarantee their animal products are GM-free, although public outcry in the late 90s and early 2000s led to widespread bans of GMOs in UK supermarkets.

On Saturday (22^nd Jan) Germany saw thousands of people protesting against industrial agriculture and GM technology during ‘Green Week’, which started on Friday. In the wake of the German dioxin scandal Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner told journalists part of the event’s importance was to show that dioxin contaminated foodstuffs "are not the reality in Germany."

However, farmers demonstrated in front of the entrance to the ‘Green Week’ fair and 80 tractors led more than 120 groups of farmers, animal rights activists and food businesses on a demonstration in Berlin. The groups’ message for policy makers was, “We've had it! No to genetic engineering, factory farms and export dumping.”

The Global Food and Farming Futures report itself states that new technologies, including GM, “should not be excluded ‘a priori’ on ethical or moral grounds,” although it acknowledges that “there is a need to respect the views of people who take a contrary view.” It also stipulates that, “The human and environmental safety of any new technology needs to be rigorously established before its deployment, with open and transparent decision-making.”

Read the Global Food and Farming Futures report here