And you thought you’d be safe from politics for a bit. We have to tackle the question of genetically modified organisms, though, when we think about our agrarian food supply, don’t we? There are so many myths floating around and, admittedly, it is such a complex topic that it is hard to figure out what to think.

The most informative, reasoned, understandable treatment of the issue that I have found can be read here:

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/the-gmo-controversy/

It does not touch the question of whether or not GMO foods should be labeled. I am all in favor of that since I think it is important to make informed decisions – even if the organic food folks are now a bit worried that people who read “NO GMO” labels of non-organic food will feel they are making a healthy decision and need not spend more to buy organic. I don’t care if the GMO industry wants no labels because an ignorant public has bought into fear mongering – that’s their problem.

There seems to be no evidence whatsoever at this point that GMO engineered food is bad for you or for the animals fed with it. People have crossbred for centuries, and now they are doing it more efficiently and with required hoops of testing. What is the net environmental impact, you might ask? Do herbicide resistant crops increase the use of herbicides? Yes they do, but they also reduce the need for tilling the soil, which is bad for it and releases CO2 into the environment. It becomes a question of agricultural diversification – if you plant a mix of GMO and non-GMO crops you are ahead in terms of producing more food and doing so economically, without hurting the environment. The same is true for insecticide engineered crops: they reduce the need to spray those poisons, but they might increase the number of resistant bugs. Note that BT, the insecticide from a bacterium that has been added, is widely used by organic farmers in its original form since it is deemed environmentally safe. Again, sustainable strategies would call for a mix of both kinds of crops.

In addition to increasing our chances of feeding a starving population in the future, GMO crops could already have a major impact. Take Golden Rice, for example, rice with inserted beta-carotene. It would solve the Vitamin A deficiency problem for millions of children, who go blind or die from not having enough of it. Nitrogen fixation is another plus of the GM technology – plants get it from the soil, depleting it and requiring expensive and environmentally burdening fertilization. If corn and wheat could fix their own nitrogen there could be a huge increase in staple foods for a hungry world. Why, then, are we so very much opposed?

And here a beauty from van Gogh’s wheat field series: