Genetically modified Golden Rice is slated to be planted on more than five hundred thousand hectares of rice paddies in the Philippines by 2028. With a below-average yield performance already observed in many provinces in the country, Golden Rice would have been a disaster in the making had it not been stopped by the Philippine court, according to the farmer-scientist group MASIPAG. From the data reported by PhilRice on the overall yield of Golden Rice as well as its total land area, a below-average yield performance can be observed. In addition, the rollout of GM Golden Rice has seen a re-emergence of a rice disease that first arrived in the Philippines in the 1970s with a foreign rice variety. Some farmers believe that the reappearance of the disease is due to Golden Rice's introduction. MASIPAG says the court ruling has meant that the country has "dodged a bullet of deepening hunger and poverty". MASIPAG via GMWatch

 

 

Plants adapt genetically over time to the special conditions of organic farming, becoming more resilient than conventionally grown seed to stresses such as disease or a lack of nutrients or water, a long-term study conducted at the University of Bonn shows. Using the same barley seed but growing it in either organic or conventional farming conditions, the organically farmed barley became more genetically heterogeneous (varied) year upon year, whereas the conventionally farmed barley became more genetically uniform over time. The study shows the importance in organic farming of saving seed on-farm and replanting it year after year, to enable the seed to progressively adapt to the local conditions. GMWatch

 

 

ver millennia we have evolved with our food supply, relying on the collective wisdom of farmers to grow foods that sustain human life. Increasingly, however, food is being produced by business entrepreneurs who see food as a commodity to be patented and profited from, writes Sandra B. Jonsdottir. Their techno foods are invented in laboratories, produced in factories and promoted with the claim they can feed the world while saving it from climate change. However, techno foods demonstrate that everything imaginable is not necessarily achievable. Perhaps food production should be brought back down to earth. The Rodale Research Centre, USA, has shown that if global crop and pastureland were managed according to regenerative systems, 100% of global CO2 emissions could be stored in soils. An organic food supply would not only reduce global warming, but vastly improve human health and the viability of world health care systems, while avoiding the centralisation and corporate control of food production. Improving the quality and quantity of our food supply is desirable, but techno foods seem unlikely to do either. GMWatch

 

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