Can GM Crops Promise Food Security?

A new “gene revolution” is being heralded as a cure-all for a growing global appetite as food systems are decimated by extreme weather

June 19, 2024 | Source: DW | by Stuart Braun

Farmers have cross-bred fruits, grains or vegetables to create tastier or higher-yielding hybrids for millennia. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that scientists first employed bioengineering to transfer genes from one organism to another to produce “transgenic” crops.

When these genetically modified organisms (GMOs) first hit shelves in the 1990s, they were dubbed Frankenstein foods. Resistance to GMO crops was based on a continuing public fear that they’re harmful to human health, even if long-term studies said eating them was as safe as conventional varieties.

Now in the 2020s, a new “gene revolution,” whereby DNA can be genetically “edited” without splicing in genes from a separate organism, is bolstering biotech crop industry claims that it can ensure food security for a global population expected to approach 10 billion by 2050.

The World Economic Forum (WEF), a consistent advocate of GM technology, says that research into new rice, maize, wheat, potato and cassava strains, for example, will further help these vital food staples survive extreme weather and “new climate-induced diseases” in a warming world.

It points out the latest bioengineering technology that helps plants and soils better capture and store planet-heating carbon from the atmosphere.