The King of Brobdingnag was ahead of his time. Today, a global debate is raging over whether biotechnology can transform the King of Brobdingnag's musings into reality. But with global population growth soon outpacing food production, biotech proponents argue that genetic engineering can help feed the multitudes and expand crop productivity in the developing world by as much as 25 percent.
Stories abound of miracle plants that are resistant to disease, pests, and drought.
But other stories are circulating-stories about how purportedly safe GM corn poisoned monarch butterflies, about how genetic pollution could wipe out entire species of plants, and about how multinational biotech firms exploit world hunger to secure monopolistic control over the food supply of the developing world. Tomorrow, the issue will be whether developing nations will have access to a technology that some say offers the best hope of providing food for the millions yet to be born. The Revolution Is Always Greener Over the next 25 to 30 years the world population is expected to increase by 2 billion. Farmers worldwide will have to increase food production by at least 50 percent to meet this growing demand. The predicament today mirrors the situation almost 30 years ago, when dire predictions emerged about imminent famine in overpopulated Asia.