The future of our food
By: Roberto Baldizon
Tags: Future, Food, World, Industry, Genetics

At the beginning of the 20th century, the human population of planet Earth was of 2 billion people. With the breakthrough advances of the century in technology and science, the human population of the planet grew by 5 billion people. (Staniford) Due to the fast pace at which population was growing at the time, many scientists from the 20th century predicted global hunger and social unrest by the early 21st century. Nevertheless, we were able to prevent famine with the so-called Green Revolution of the 20th century. (Borlaug) This Revolution consisted of better agricultural methods for irrigation and more technologies being applied to our traditional forms of agriculture together with the larger usage of land for the production of food. The improvements in agriculture efficiency led to much more agricultural production than what was produced at the beginning of the century. Thanks to the Green Revolution, our world has been able to feed most of the increasing human populations and to produce a food surplus in some countries at the same time. However, the Green Revolution is reaching its maximum production capability today in the 21st century, while the world population continues to increase. Our world population is estimated to reach 9 billion people in 50 years. (Staniford) Our traditional food production is estimated to grow at a much smaller pace, than that of our population. (Borlaug) In order to prevent world hunger and global social unrest, our world’s scientist, farmers, politicians, corporations, and entrepreneurs are looking into new technologies to produce more and better food. One of the technologies that are being considered as a solution is Genetic Engineering. Genetic modification of food could have the capacity of solving our world’s hunger problems in the not so distant future by modifying crops to grow faster, stronger and with better nutritional values.



Genetic Modification of crops could give our societies the capacity for feeding all of its members. By doing so, our world is able to maintain social systems and maybe even lowering the differences between social classes with more availability of food. Farmers and agricultural corporations would be able to give a desired plant certain traits that it wouldn’t naturally have. Such traits would come from the DNA of other organisms and would allow the crop to grow in more places, and variable conditions. (Borlaug) With this method, we could design crops that will never grow naturally in the arid lands of Africa, where hunger seems to be an increasing problem. By using genetic modification to improve our crops we could have tastier foods with much more nutritional value, and that are able to grow in non-traditional weather conditions (Phillips) Because crops would be able to grow in harder conditions, with more nutritious value, in bigger quantities, and with more natural advantages, more food and better would be then produced. Even though genetically modified foods possess all of these positive qualities, they are not liked by everyone. Some consider genetically modified foods as a danger towards life itself. Those who dislike this type of crops have previously argued that they are not as nutritional as natural ones, that they are not as healthy and that they might become weeds in the near future. Nevertheless, previous experiments by the FDA have shown that these foods are as nutritional as organic crops. (Phillips) Actually, most of the fears against genetically modified crops seem to come from speculation because as Phillips points out in his article, genetic modified foods and crops have already been widely introduced in markets like the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. Genetic modification of food has actually proved to be positive environmentally and economically. These crops are being designed by people who have studied the environment and who know how to get the best of its kind of the desired species. Due to the fact that genetic engineering has the capacity of increasing amount and quality of crops, even with changing soil and climate conditions, it seems to be becoming the future of agriculture and food production for our world.

Genetic modification of crops can actually be beneficial in more ways than just food production. Besides having the capability of producing better crops, the consumption of pesticides and insecticides could be reduced with genetic engineering. By making crops that produce their own pesticides and insecticides that kill undesired organisms, the use of petrochemical products by farmers would hugely decrease. (Phillips) Therefore the national energy security of countries that choose to use the method would also improve. Even less water could be used when growing these crops since they can be designed with genes from other organisms that would allow them to be more effective. In countries like Brazil and the United States, genetic modification of crops could increase in a more effective way the production of better Biofuels. By genetically modifying crops to be of desirable sizes and with the most sugars as possible, more efficient Biofuels could be produced. Other genetically engineered plants which have been designed and could have been used for the benefit of humanity, but that were not commercialized are able to stop or slow growth of bacteria, others can produce opiate identical to that the human brain produces, others can produce serum albumin, which is used for fluid replacement. (Bray) Largely due to the bad reputation and public opinion on genetically modified crops, these crops are not yet economically feasible. It is in fact because of the industry’s market structure that the industry is largely controlled by a monopoly. The U.S. based genetic engineering company, Monsanto, manufactures 90% of the world genetically modified crops. This industry might represent an economical danger if not open to more companies that could work with farmers to maintain an economical structure similar to our current one. (Greenpeace) Other European countries represent 10% of the industry but can’t currently grow with all of the unnecessary regulations that the European Union has imposed on them. Since genetically modified crops have already proved to be beneficial, and not- dangerous in countries likes: United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina, it seems unnecessary, and even dumb to impose so many regulations on the industry. The only way we could have a better structure for the genetic modification of the food industry in our market systems would be if regulations were lowered and more firms would be included. With the higher competition of firms and less economic regulations on the industry, these beneficial and convenient crops for food could be produced.

Genetically modified crops should be viewed as a form of technology which would enable us to effectively produce better food. As Phillips points out, genetic modification of food is not even a new technology; it is only an extension of the practices that are already done by traditional agriculture. It actually is even better than traditional methods because we are able to have more accurate and beneficial results. Although it is logical that some fear exists on the method, because of misinformation since many technologies have been feared through history. Even today some technologies like the photographic camera are considered dangerous by tribes and communities who take an irrational approach to analyze them. The longer it takes for us to realize the genetic modification of food is just a tool, the larger the world hunger problem will grow. Even the genetic modification industry problems could be fixed with a larger acceptance of the method, allowing more companies to get in the market. As these types of food become more important, more institutions like the EPA could even become involved with the production of such food, making it even more accurate and safe for everyone. If we do not support and genetic modification of food, world hunger and malnutrition will only continue to grow as the population grows because our traditional methods simply could not keep up with the demand. Our world’s population will continue to increase rapidly; meanwhile, most of our farmable land is already being used, our climate is changing and our soils are depleting, reasons for which traditional agriculture will not be able to keep up with the growth.3.3 million Children a year are already dying of malnutrition, and this number will only increase with the continuous population growth.