GM Foods and Developing Countries

http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/full/124/3/923

Commentary:

This article is supports the introduction of GM crops in developing countries. Luis R. Herrera-Estrella points out that genetically modified foods provide the most promise for increasing food production to meet rising needs.
In order to increase the food supply, the author writes that genetic innovations must be available to subsistence farmers in developing countries, especially in tropical and subtropical areas where pests take the greatest toll. Pest destroy almost half of all world crop production. Current technology is aimed at helping high-output industrial farmers.
Herrera-Estrella feels that plant biotechnology is advantageous because of the flexibility and the number of crops it will benefit. Genetic changes can be made to combat various problems such as pest damage or rushed ripening. These changes could be applied to a wide range of crops and offer greater yields to countless farmers in different countries. He also promotes biotechnology because of the relatively few changes it would make to individual farmers. They would still grow the same species and would need no additional factors of production.
Herrera-Estrella makes a very convincing argument for the use of biotechnology and also points out the problems with the current development and transfer of these technologies. He feels that large corporations and industrialized countries where research is taking place do not feel the urgency to implement these technologies. The issue of payment also becomes an issue. The author claims that in order for the transfer of technology to take place, a separate body must be created to oversee crop biotechnology and decide controversial issues.
I found this article very convincing. I never really considered food production a problem but this article elucidated the current and potential problems an increasingly large and city-bound population will have getting enough food. I have know that most of the crops we have been selectively bred but I felt that genetically engineered crops were fairly rare. The increasing prevalence of these crops is encouraging for those in the field. This article is relevant to current healthcare debates because it argues for a new direction in genetic engineering for foods. It must be aimed at helped farmers in developing countries in order to prevent a world food crisis from erupting.
The article pushes very stongly for GM foods, but Herrera-Estrella never addresses the issue of genetically engineered crops themselves being harmful. The only problems he sees are in the distribution of the technology. He aims to increase public knowledge of the problems with food production across the world the solution he sees in biotechnology. He hopes this will prompt new gusto in research for farmers in developing nations and a better distribution of the resulting modified crops.
Herrera-Estrella does bring up the interesting point of protecting the environment. Without new technology, poor farmers will continue to clear rainforests and other valuable resources for new farmland. This could also impact healthcare by taking away potential sources for new drugs and lower the quality of the enviroment for all.
Herrera-Estrella stresses the promise of biological engineering for crops, the problems with the current system that prevent technology from being developed and given to poor farmer, and the environmental impact that ignoring the growing problem could have.