Seed Today

GM 'vital' to Meeting the World's Food Needs

Cork, Ireland (August 27, 2008) -- Biotechnologies such as GM crops are necessary to double global food production by 2050 is one of messages at the annual Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference in Cork, Ireland ths week.

By 2020, global agriculture will need to produce 36pc more food with less water, less fertiliser and less chemicals, only a small increase in land and more extreme weather patterns, delegates at the ABIC 2008 conference organized by Teagasc – the Agriculture and Food Development Authority .

Dr Charles Spillane of University College Cork said global food production was not on target and every available technology, including GM and other biotechnologies, would need to be harnessed if we were to even approach such figures.

Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle said the best position regarding GM for Ireland was a politically sensitive one.

"It is not Teagasc's role to get involved in the politics of GM but to research the technology, evaluate its use in other countries and determine the benefits and faults of adopting GM technology," he said.

He added that biotechnology raised questions of enormous public interest, including the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production and their effects on the environment, but their record internationally was very good.

Professor Jimmy Burke said that 30 years of international research and development had shown that producing plants and food using biotechnology was safe.

Better yields

He added that technology that imparted resistance to herbicides and insect attack were providing cost and yield improvements and giving a competitive advantage to those using it.

If Irish cereal farmers were to hold onto their record as the most productive in the world, they must be able to use the most appropriate and competitive technology in the future, he told the conference.

The four-day Teagasc-hosted conference entitled "Agricultural biotechnology for a competitive and sustainable future" began on Sunday and continues until tomorrow.