The Farmers Choice
Truth about Trade & Technology board member Reg Clause posted a commentary this week about the ISAAA report. His comments on the benefits of biotechnology and the response by advocacy group Friends of the Earth are posted below. Take a look at let me know what you think.
C.S. Prakash
The Farmers Choice
Truth about Trade & Technology
February 22, 2008
I noticed a news headline the other day, “Biotech reports spark debate over potential benefits.” I discovered two things upon reading the article. 1) Utilization of biotech crops is growing in double digits annually, increasing global productivity substantially, reducing poverty by helping farmers and keeping food affordable, reducing the environmental impacts of farming and contributing to the potential for cost effective biofuels. All backed up by objective evidence. 2) A group called “Friends of the Earth” will have none of this and take issue with the report line by line; generally backing up their statements with all-to-familiar spin and bluster.
Now, in regards to the “Friends” mentioned above, I couldn’t help thinking of a line from a comedian I once heard. He said, “some people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths.”
I mean, really, there is no amount of good news that will satisfy some folks.
Check out the new report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), which determines the global area of biotech crops each year. The latest one, covering 2007, was just released. It tells a now familiar story of rapid growth in the use of biotech and the totally positive impacts on the environment and people’s lives.
Twelve million farmers in 23 countries were responsible for this achievement, up from 10.3 million in 21 countries in 2006. The number of biotech acres they planted increased by 12 percent from a year before. The newest members of the GM club are Chile and Poland.
Farmers in the United States accounted for about half of the world’s biotech acres. Growers in South America--mainly Argentina and Brazil, plus Paraguay and Uruguay--planted about one-third of the total. Canada, India, China, and South Africa also devoted substantial acreage to GM crops.
