12/April/21

 

Perhaps the longest running dispute in all of agriculture resolves into the question of abundance. Will food systems continue to be able to provide for human needs? Or do we face looming insufficiency and a calamitous mismatch between human population growth and agricultural productivity? A new peer-reviewed paper by Dr Jonathan Latham, published in the book Rethinking Agriculture: New Ways Forward, resolves this dispute. It does so by examining the global food system models, created by FAO and others, that are the primary evidence base for predictions of global shortages. The paper shows that the food models are flawed because they underestimate global food supplies and overestimate future demand. In other words, predictions of future global scarcity are explainable as being entirely due to flawed modelling. This work has important implications for the future direction of world agriculture. Independent Science News

 

 

Today the agbiotech industry and its allies zealously promote the legend of the the so-called Green Revolution as a flattering framing for the spread of GM crops. A Monsanto chief even recounted the ageing Norman Borlaug, the founder of the Green Revolution, tearing up because while he lived through the Green Revolution, he would not live to see the “Gene Revolution” which might save Africa. In India, the Green Revolution did happen in the 1960s, leading to the popular myth that it saved the subcontinent from famines. But the last few years have brought an astonishing burst of research by historians that forces us to completely rethink what happened in India in 1960s. So how many lives were saved in India due to the so-called Green Revolution? Try zero, writes anthropologist and commentator on GM crops, Glenn Davis Stone, who is based at Washington University in St Louis. Geography Directions

 

 

Health Canada has launched a public consultation on its proposal to remove government regulation of some GM foods, notably those produced using using the new genetic engineering techniques of gene editing. If approved, the proposal would remove government oversight for some GMOs into the food system without any government safety assessments – these would be unregulated GMOs that the government may not even know exist. Take action: Demand mandatory, independent safety assessments for all genetically engineered foods. You can send your comments to Health Canada until May 24, 2021. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network offers information and analysis in a guide to the consultation at www.cban.ca/NoExemptions/Guide. CBAN