|
Myth 1: GMOs are not needed to "feed the
world".
People are hungry because they are poor, not because there's not enough
food. And if they can't afford to buy conventional food, they'll hardly
be able to afford GM food.
No. People are hungry because they cannot grow enough food to feed themselves
locally. This is for a variety of reasons. For example insects devastate
their crops and they cannot afford insecticides to protect the crops.
If they were to grow a GM Bt crop then they would get insecticide for
free and be able to produce more food. In this way can GM food help feed
the poor.
Another reason is losses during storage of the grains due to insect attack
or rotting of the food in storage. This is because the poor cannot afford
the expensive silos and treatments required to reduce losses of this nature.
If the crops were GM they could be made to resist insect damage and spoilage.
In this way GM food can help feed the poor.
Another reason is losses of food due to disease - poor farmers (and many
wealthy ones) cannot afford to spray fungicides on their crops. If crops
were made resistant to diseases by GM then they could produce more food
locally. In this way GM food can help feed the poor.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
The UK Farm Scale Evaluation (FSE) results were released on Oct. 16, 2003.
The three-year field trials were designed to examine the effects of weed
management practices - including use of herbicides and practices enabled
by GM crops -- on weed and invertebrate populations. The FSE trials focused
on three crops -- maize, sugar beet, and oilseed rape - and the results
are now available as a series of eight scientific papers in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B.
These peer-reviewed papers include a large amount of data, much of which
has not been reported through the media. It is important to consider all
of the data that has been produced and to examine the results and lessons
in the broad context of agricultural systems and the environment. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Researchers have found a section of plant DNA
that could be used as the universal 'barcode' to identify flowering
plants, aiding biodiversity research. They also hope it can be used to track endangered plant species and check whether they are being transported illegally.
The research team, led by Vincent Savolainen of
the UK's Imperial College London and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
published their findings this week (4 February) in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
| Results 5 - 8 of 52 |
