Sunday, January 23, 2011

UK's Chief Scientist: Genetically Modified Crops 'Key to Human Survival'

Sir John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government
(The Observer, UK) GM crops alone would not be sufficient to hold off widespread starvation, he added. No single approach would guarantee food security for humanity for the rest of the century. A widespread approach, including the development of proper sustainability, protecting fish stocks and changes to patterns of consumption, was also critical, he said. "This report was set up to find out if we can feed nine billion people sustainably, healthily and equitably. We can, but it will take many different approaches to crack the problem."

Timing was crucial. "In 2008 food prices rocketed to their highest level for decades. People said it was just a one-off, but last year what happened? Wheat prices saw their fastest ever increase. The era of declining food prices is over and we have to face that," he added.

Almost a billion people now suffer serious food shortages and face starvation. "It is unimaginable that in the next 10 to 20 years that there will not be a worsening of that problem unless we take action now, and we have to include the widest possible range of solutions." [Full Story]

 Dangers of genetically engineered foods
  • Scientists can choose which genes to manipulate, but they don't yet know where in the DNA to precisely insert these genes and they have no way of controlling gene expression. Genes don't work in isolation, changing a few could change the whole picture, with unpredictable and different effects under different circumstances.
  • It is not correct to tout genetically modified food without evaluating the risks sufficiently. Or at least proving conclusively that there are no risks.
  • Many GM companies don't label their foods as being GM foods. There is concern about a GM bias affecting business. But not labeling is wrong and unfair to the consumers who should have the right to know what they are buying and indeed to decide whether they want to buy GM food or not. Even if health safety factors are not an issue, some people might have moral or religious objections. They should not have to eat GM food if they don't want to.
  • GM food will end food diversity if everyone starts growing the same standardized crops.
  • Herbicide-resistant and pesticide-resistant crops could give rise to super-weeds and super-pests that would need newer, stronger chemicals to destroy them.
  • GM crops could cross-pollinate with nearby non-GM plants and create ecological problems. If this were to happen with GM foods containing vaccines, antibiotics, contraceptives and so on, it would very well turn into a human health nightmare.
  • The claim of ending world hunger with GM food is a false claim. World hunger is not caused by shortage of food production, but by sheer mismanagement, and lack of access to food brought about by various social, financial and political causes.
  • The GM technology companies patent their crops and also engineer crops so that harvested grain germs are incapable of developing. This is not empowering to impoverished Third World farmers, who cannot save seeds for replanting and have to buy expensive seeds from the companies every time. The new technology also interferes with their traditional agricultural ways which may be more suited to their conditions. [2]
    The United Nations projects that the human population will increase from the current 6.8 billion to between 8 billion and 10.5 billion in 2050.[3]The conclusions of the report titled Return of the Population Growth Factor: Its Impact upon the Millennium Development Goals, was that “the MDGs are difficult or impossible to achieve with the current levels of population growth in the least developed countries and regions.”[4] The message written by the occult hierarchy on the Georgia Guidestones states that the population should be maintained at 500 million. [5][6]The Earth Charter’s seventh principle calls for “responsible reproduction.” In order to reduce the population by this much, countries will have to implement a program like China's - enforcing to abort babies if they have more than one child. Adopting GMOs will reduce the population more quickly.

          "...All those who hate me love death."  Proverbs 8:36b