NEWS: GM Crops: GM Crops Could Save World Of Food Woes
Bernama.com
April 18, 2007
Excerpt…
KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Bernama) -- Genetically modified crops could be the answer to the world's food shortage in future, especially with the rapid growth of human population, Nobel laureate Professor Werner Arber said Wednesday.
He said genetically engineered crops would not only be able to meet increasing food consumption and help reduce hunger in the world, but could also provide the nutrients much needed by both humans and animals.
"The general public should not treat genetic engineering as a threat that could modify the DNA of living organisms, but should see it as an evolution process that takes place naturally in the environment," he told reporters after delivering a talk on "The Impact of Science and Technology on Civilisation" at Universiti Malaya, here Wednesday.
"It's a natural evolution of living organisms in our environment. It happens even without our permission and our consciousness," said the 1978 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine/Physiology for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics.
Arber, 78, pointed out that the magnitude of genetic engineering under natural conditions and in the laboratories were of the same level.
The Swiss said that with the planet's growing population and with more land converted for non-agriculture purposes, there could not be enough food for everyone in years to come.
"Genetically engineered crops can improve nutritional value of food which human beings and animals depend on, such as vitamins and the essential amino acid which is not much available naturally.
"So genetic engineering can produce plants which have increased proportions of nutrients essential for the human diet," said Arber who is here on a two-day visit.
Arber who was here for the first time in 2002, said in tackling rising concerns over genetic engineering being abused, the civil society at large needed to play a bigger role in the matter.
"Scientists come up with new findings and assessment of the benefits and risks of these findings. But the people and policy makers should decide how they should control the impact of genetically modified organisms on their lives," he said.
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