Monsanto makes the case for GM crops
Monsanto announced plans to create new seeds with higher yields and lower energy and water demands in response to the global food crisis. Sarah Gardner has more.
Monsanto hopes new seeds will double yields while cutting energy and water demands. (Monsanto)
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Kai Ryssdal: Biofuels were the main agenda item today at the United Nations food summit in Rome. The U.S. and Brazil are facing heavy criticism for taking corn and sugar cane out of the food chain and using them instead for energy.
Monsanto, the world's number one maker of genetically modified seeds, says it sees opportunity in the global food crisis. The agribusiness giant announced today it's working on a way to double crop yields while using less energy and water at the same time... and oh yeah, spreading the word about genetically modified crops.
Sarah Gardner reports from the Marketplace Sustainability Desk.
Sarah Gardner: Monsanto says it will try to create seeds that will double yields of cotton, corn and soybeans and require 30 percent less land, water and energy.
CEO Hugh Grant says his company can do it in two ways:
Hugh Grant: One is through improving traditional breeding technologies and the other is through biotechnology that protects the yield from hungry bugs and aggressive weeds.
Biotechnology means growing genetically modified crops, a widespread practice here, but suspect in Europe and Africa.
Whether Monsanto can pull off these commitments is uncertain. Biotech critics say GM seeds haven't significantly increased crop yields so far. Farmers typically use the company's herbicides and pesticides with the company's GM seeds.
Ronnie Cummins is with the Organic Consumers Association.
Ronnie Cummins: What it's done is led to an increase in pesticide use and an increase in chemical fertilizer and, you know, more profits for these companies.
But Cummins does believe there's promise in what he calls the "souped up" traditional breeding techniques Monsanto says it will push.
Carolyn Raffensperger at the Science and Environmental Health Network says Monsanto's commitments aside, a single technology can't solve the global food crisis.
Carolyn Raffensperger: It is not seeds alone. It is weather, it is soil, it is food distribution...
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant says he expects skepticism about today's announcement, but given predictions of future food shortages, he says "skepticism is a commodity the world can't afford right now."
I'm Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.
Comments
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From FL, 08/27/2008
The reason GM is "suspect in Europe and Africa" (and also in Asia) is that they are waiting to see the long term outcome of using this method in the US before they do it. In other words we are the guinea pigs for the rest of the world. The leader of Japan said exactly that recently when asked about GM crops in Japan. They are waiting to see what happens to our children and our wildlife before they decide to try it. Just do a quick websearch on Monsanto if you want to raise thousands of questions as to effects already seen and whether it is wise to continue. Please take time to watch the documentary film produced by the French called "The Future of Food" detailing the impact Monsanto has already had on farming and famers in the US and Europe.
06/05/2008
I was dumbfounded by the ending quote from Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant: "skepticism is a commodity the world can't afford right now." What? Was skepticism ever a "commodity"? And if it ever was a commodity, how much does it cost? If the world can't afford it "right now," when can we afford it?
06/05/2008
There has been a great deal of discussion regarding growing concerns for food shortages around the world. Suggested causes range from insufficient yields, diversions for energy production,gluttonny by wealthier countries etc. But no one seems to be discussing the possiblity that there are too many consumers.
In the natural world, natural forces act to balance consumers and producers of food energy. The global population has grown to the point where people are forced to live in places and in ways that are unsafe and unsustainable. The global eco-system will balance consumption and production for us unless we humans - the only species capable of rational thought - can find a sustainable balance between consumption and production within our own communities and across the planet.
Global birth control must be part of the overall solution to being able to feed the residents of the planet.
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