An industry group promoting the use of controversial GM crops is urging Europe to embrace new crop techniques. Europe risks ‘becoming the museum of world agriculture’ if gene editing and GM technology ‘continues to be stifled’, according to Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC). Its ‘Cultivating the Future’ report, published to mark the 20th anniversary of the commercialization of GM crops, claims innovative crop technologies are needed to meet the challenge of a growing world population and increased impact of climate change on agriculture. GM crops, it argues, are just one of the many technologies that will need to be part of the solution to the challenge facing agriculture in the coming years. It adds we are on the verge of a new range of tools developed from advances in genetic knowledge and technology. The report complains that a ‘prolonged and shallow debate’ around GM crops in the last two decades is unsustainable, and risks imposing a great cost on farms and on the environment. With consumers predicted to demand 70% more food by 2050, the authors warn that there is no time to waste.
Source: foodnavigator.com
Lightbulb Moment: If ignorance and fear are allowed to continue to fuel this topic, and industry does nothing to correct the narrative, we will be further behind than we already are. Interested in keeping up with the GMO conversation? That’s where Culinary Tides, Inc. comes in.