Food system needs options, including GM crops

An opinion piece, published in the Boulder Daily Camera on March 18, 2016

The Boulder County Commissioners this week directed county staff to draw up a plan to phase out genetically-modified crops on county-owned open space agricultural land. Decision-making in public policy must be based on the best available evidence. This issue is important first because GM technologies could play a significant role in helping to ameliorate the significant food system challenges that we face in the 21st century, and second because public policies at local scales not only affect the local food system but can also have wider impacts.

Globally, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimates that 70 percent more food will be needed by 2050. This is both because the world population is increasing, and because per capita food consumption is increasing in many places. Current food production systems are, in many places, putting enormous pressure on the environment: in terms of land use, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.

At the local scale, Boulder County open space land has been a place for innovation in developing a local, diversified food system. A diversity of farms and farming practices coexist in Boulder. Many farmers in the county are trying to produce more local food in a manner that is as sustainable as possible, while maintaining or improving their livelihoods.

Responding to all of these challenges, global and local, requires the development of more sustainable food systems. This will require multiple approaches, including more sustainable diets, reduced food waste, and more efficient food production. To produce food more efficiently, we will need to draw upon all of the knowledge and tools available to us. This includes organic farming, agro-ecological production systems, and GM crop technologies. To unnecessarily rule out any one tool would be to constrain our collective capacity to respond to this challenge of developing more sustainable food systems.

Read the full article here