- U.S. crop data show GM has failed to substantially increase the productivity of food and feed crops.
- Traditional breeding has steadily increased crop yields.
- There are no drought resistant or flood tolerant GM crops on the market.
- Traditional breeding has developed a new disease-resistant cassava that increases yield under drought 5- to 6-fold.
- Traditional breeding has developed a drought-tolerant and disease-resistant pearl millet (an important native African crop).
- Traditional breeding has developed a resilient high-yielding rice resulting from a cross between African and Asian rice.
- Traditional breeding has developed rice now grown in Bangladesh that survives long submergence after monsoon rains.
- Studies also show low-cost ecologically based farming methods have actually doubled yields of some crops in Africa.
- Modern genomic methods, such as marker-assisted selection (MAS), involving none of the risks of GM, also hold promise.
- Why use a hazardous technology that hasn't proven very effective, when so many desirable alternatives are available?
- Opting for GM wastes scarce resources and may further stunt research investment into far more productive technologies and methods.
Is GM the way to increase yields and counter climate challenges?
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