As another World Food Day approaches, it's time to accept the positive role of GM technologies  

Hunger and poverty are inextricably linked.  Today,  825 million people around the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition.  These figures break down as some 520 million in Asia, 250 million in Africa, 50 million in Latin America, with the remaining 5 million in the rest of the world.  Globally, 60% of those who suffer from hunger and malnutrition are subsistence farmers, 20% are landless but dependent on farming for their livelihoods and only 20% are found in urban areas. 

Throughout the first decade of using commercialised GM crops, from 1996 to 2005, it has been consistently documented that GM technology has made significant contributions to the alleviation of poverty and malnutrition.  In developing countries, 7.5 million farmers planted GM crops in 2004.  

As countries move towards self sufficiency, GM technologies will be an important tool for farmers in developing countries to respond to population food needs.   The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day every year on 16 October.  The FAO has recommended the use of GM crops in developing countries to fight hunger. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that current approved GM crops are safe for food use.

According to Clive James, Chairman of The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), the organisation tracking the development of hectares under GM crops since 1996, “there has been unprecedented rapid double digit growth every single year in the adoption of this technology.  In 2005, we witnessed the planting of the one billionth acre of GM crops; in 2004, for the first time, more than one third of the global acreage of GM crops was grown in developing countries by 7.5 million farmers.”

In a study by PG Economics published Tuesday (October 11)  farmers using the technology increased their income by US$27 billion during the period 1996 to 2004 with significant, additional  environmental benefits delivered; the accumulative economic benefits during the nine years to developing countries ($15 billion), exceeded benefits to industrial countries ($12 billion).

Agriculture and intercultural dialogue is the theme of this year’s FAO World Food Day campaign.  “The sharing of the significant body of knowledge and experience that has been accumulated on biotech crops in developing countries, since their commercialization in 1996, is an essential ingredient for a transparent and knowledge-based discussion by an informed global society about the potential benefits that biotech crops offer developing countries in helping them meet their food, feed and fibre needs,” says Simon Barber, Director of the Plant Biotechnology Unit at EuropaBio.

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) is a not-for-profit organization that delivers the benefits of new agricultural biotechnologies to the poor in developing countries.  It aims to share these powerful technologies to those who stand to benefit from them and at the same time establish an enabling environment for their safe use.

PG Economics Limited is a specialist provider of advisory and consultancy services to agriculture and other natural resource-based industries. Its specific areas of specialisation are plant biotechnology, agricultural production systems, agricultural markets and policy.

EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, has 60 members operating worldwide, and 25 national biotechnology associations representing some 1500 small and medium sized enterprises involved in research and development, testing, manufacturing and distribution of biotechnology products.