Food Prices and Global Demand

It’s Time for a Revolution
Can you imagine 8 billion people? The International Food Policy Research Institute can. This institution predicts that by 2020 the world population will jump 8 billion people... maybe even more! How will we feed all these people?

Whoa! Before we talk about the future, let’s learn from the past. In 1970, Norman Borlaug accepted a Nobel Prize Laureate for Peace for his work in creating the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution used improved varieties of high-yielding wheat and rice and coupled them with modern farming techniques. The result? It boosted rice and wheat production more than threefold in Asia between 1961 and 2001 while using only slightly more land. It is credited with saving the lives of up to 1 billion people!

Could another innovation like that help tackle the enormous food demands of today? Borlaug thinks so. He says what the Green Revolution did for the second half of the 20th century, the gene revolution could do for the 21st century. That’s right. Biotechnology is our greatest hope to halt the world’s current food crisis.

The World Remains the Same
If the Earth isn’t growing but the population is, will we have enough land to grow enough food. Biotechnology's track record seems to indicate yes. American farmers have been growing biotechnology corn and soybeans for years, producing more grain on the same amount of acres. (See the ethanol myth for more about this.) Experts believe the same technology can be used to grow more rice and wheat on shrinking farmlands in Asia and Africa.

Wait, there’s more. With biotechnology:

Foods with extended shelf lives that can reduce food losses caused by spoilage.
Plants resistant to toxic metals that will increase the areas available for farming. Aluminum, for example, is a serious problem in acidic soils in South and Central America, Northern Africa, India, and China.
Salt-tolerant plants that would allow crops to grow in salt-contaminated soils or be irrigated using salty or low-quality water.

The Science of It All
For centuries, humans have been breeding plants and livestock to produce tastier, more nutritious, and more abundant food. Biotechnology does the same thing. It is genetic engineering. In simple terms, biotechnology takes traits from one gene and splices them with another. It is the same basic concept as cross-breeding, but it is done in a lab so that it is more precise and allows for more possibilities.

Is it safe? Yes! We Americans have been eating biotech foods for more than a decade. And why not? Biotech products have been declared safe and nutritious by leaders of respected national and international organizations such as:

American Medical Association
American Dietetic Association
Institute of Food Technologists
World Health Organization
Food and Agricultural Organizations of the United Nations

As former president Jimmy Carter says, “Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is.” That’s why many countries in Europe and Asia, who have opposed biotechnology in the past, are now diving deep into the topic. They understand that biotechnology can lift the world from it’s food crisis and higher food prices.