Biotech Helping Feed Africa

Farmers benefit from biotech crops production

SPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT PETER MUTAI

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Continued progress on commercialization of biotech crops was witnessed in all three countries in Africa during the 2009 period.

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Application (ISAAA), South Africa has increased its hectarage by 17 percent while Burkina Faso increased by 14 percent.

The three countries broader coverage is of strategic importance because it allows more African countries to become practitioners of biotech crops and be able to benefit directly from learning by doing, a practice which has been proved to be very important.

This is a remarkable achievement given that Africa is the continent with the greatest challenge on food production compared to other continents.

As South Africa continue to export their biotech agricultural products such as maize, researchers now say that Kenya too could be on the beneficiary list once it adopts the technology.

With the food insecurity already ravaging most parts of sub Saharan Africa hence forcing countries to import food mainly maize and beans, the application of biotechnology could be of a solution to pest and diseases that wipe out millions of crops yearly.     Read More

You certainly get a different perspective about biotechnology in countries where so many people are starving.  There are no Michael Pollan’s in Africa and the reason is that many people over there wonder where their next meal is coming from.  Having the luxury to choose food that was raised in a certain way is a very foreign concept to people in Africa.  Our country has the ability to help feed these people yet we have full-stomached protesters and activists that are trying to stop that from happening.  This is why Pollan’s line of thinking is so out of touch with reality, a reality that too many people live with every day. 

Biotech Benefitting Everyone

Biotechnology is future of farming
By Matt Hutton
Daily Review Atlas

Posted May 07, 2010 @ 07:56 PM

ROSEVILLE — By 2050, the United Nations estimates that the world's population will be 9.4 billion. To meet that growing need, economists say that during the next 40 years farmers will need to double their food production — it could take more food in the next 40 years to feed the world than it took in the last 10,000. Farmers say the only way to accomplish this feat is through biotechnology.

Illinois Soybean Association Chairman and Roseville Farmer Ron Moore was a speaker at a biotechnology conference — Heal, Fuel and Feed the World — in Chicago at McCormick Place. He said more than 15,000 people attended the event, which ran from May 3 to 6 with Moore involved in panel discussions May 4 and 5.

Moore said the advancements in biotechnology have drastically changed the agriculture industry in the past decade, especially the seed trade. Corn and soybeans can now be genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant, insect resistant and drought resistant. Read More

The benefits of biotechnology in our food have made a profound difference in our ability to produce more with less. Year after year, food production gets more efficient by combining generations of experience with new technology. We all benefit from a more reliable food supply and the use of less natural resources to grow it. ~ Troy

Biotech's Benefit

Biotechnology’s benefits for U.S. farmers
Apr 15, 2010 11:36 AM
Western Farm Press

American farmers are realizing higher profits due to the widespread use of certain genetically engineered crops and are reducing environmental impacts on and off the farm according to a recently released report from the National Research Council (NRC).

Specifically, the report notes, "(m)any U.S. farmers who grow genetically engineered (GE) crops are realizing substantial economic and environmental benefits — such as lower production costs, fewer pest problems, reduced use of pesticides, and better yields — compared with conventional crops." The report was commissioned and internally funded by NRC in order to evaluate the impact of GE crops on all U.S. farmers.

Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, BIO executive vice president for food and agriculture, said, "The NRC's report acknowledges what we have known all along: That genetically engineered (GE) crops provide significant environmental, economic, and social benefits, and they are an integral tool in achieving sustainable agricultural production.

"Decades of documented evidence demonstrate that agricultural biotechnology is a safe and beneficial technology that contributes to both environmental and economic sustainability.

Farmers choose biotech crops because they produce more yields on less land with less production costs. That means farmers get a greater financial return while using environmentally friendly farming practices. Read More

Human beings have been improving the crops and livestock where we source our food from for the past 10,000 years. Nothing we eat today looks like it did back then. Genetic engineering has been taking place that entire time in order to improve the food supply. Luckily for us, we can now do it with more accuracy and in a shorter period of time. Because of that, we produce more food, more efficiently, with less inputs and less impact than ever before. That’s reason to celebrate.

Growing Enough Food

Food crisis looms, warn scientists
By Stuart Gary for ABC Science Online
Feb 12, 2010

A new report by Australian researchers claims far more needs to be done if we are to feed the estimated 9 billion people who will be living on the planet by 2050.

The report, by Professor Mark Tester and Professor Peter Langridge of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at the University of Adelaide, appears today in the journal Science.
"The simple fact is while food production has increased by 32 million tonnes a year, an annual increase of 44 million tonnes a year is what's actually needed to meet the food targets for 2050 set down by the World Summit on Food security," Professor Tester said.

"But this represents a 38 per cent increase over historical improvements in food production and it needs to be sustained for the next 40 years.

"This scale of increase is unprecedented and will require huge changes to current food production methods."

"India, which has more undernourished people than Africa, is a real challenge," he said.
"Especially with their government's hard stand on genetically modified foods."

Professor Tester believes new breeding technologies are needed to increase crop yields by quickly identifying the best genes for any given conditions.

"This is the way forward if we are to feed the world in the future." Read More

We continue to hear food production experts stress the importance of using technology to meet demand. Just like Norman Borlaug used all the resources and technology at his disposal to stave off world wide famine, we will need to do the same. It would be unethical at this point in time to do anything less. We can’t turn our back on the ability to produce more food when we have hungry people in this world. We can’t let the Michael Pollan’s of the world decide who will eat and who won’t.