It is—and here’s why.
ICYMI:The Philippines recently became the first country to approve commercial production of Golden Rice, rice that’s been genetically modified to be richer in beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A.
Golden Rice has huge potential to help solve hunger,as we reported last week—but like many GMOs, it’s long faced opposition that's blocked it from getting to people who need it.
“But what if all this concern over GMOs is misplaced? What if we need them?”asks Vermont Public Radio.
In addition to health benefits, GMOs can lessen the impact of climate change: “One of the things that contributes to climate change is actually deforestation [for] agriculture,” explains writer Jennifer Kahn. “We need agriculture to become more efficient. So that’s one argument for GMOs.”
Read: The tide is turning on GMOs—and it’s about time
And gene modification and gene editing are similar to traditional plant breeding—just more precise: “[W]hen you crossbreed, you know, to get a new tomato or a new apple—boy, we are changing the genetics in ways we don't even understand,” continues Kahn. “We are dragging like large, large numbers of genes over from one thing to another, and we're not even testing those to see whether it has changed the nutritional value or anything else.”
Read the whole thing.
Watch: Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna explains CRISPR for plant breeding
More Agriculture and Environment News:
CNN: Earth is warming faster than previously thought, scientists say, and the window is closing to avoid catastrophic outcomes
“Only by making deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, while also removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, can we halt the precipitous trend,” according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
