GM food and sustainable food production

GS Paper 3

 Syllabus: Awareness in the fields of Biotechnology

Source: IE

 Context: Genetically modified (GM) food is viewed as a controversial as well as a science-based solution for a sustainable global food system.

Challenges the world is facing – Conflict between food security and environmental protection:

• Agriculture is responsible for a quarter of the carbon emissions and the vast majority of the world’s biodiversity losses.
• However, there is the need to increase food production (by 50%), as the world’s population keeps growing [will reach 10 billion in 2057 (as per UN estimates)].

Approaches to achieving food security and mitigating climate crisis:

• Dietary changes to make consumption more sustainable.
• Better technologies to create more environmentally friendly methods of agriculture. Gene technologies are a crucial part of the strategy for a sustainable food system.

What is GM food?

• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are organisms that have altered DNA to change their properties.
• Foods produced from or using GMOs are often referred to as GM foods/crops.
• GMOs were first introduced in the US in 1994, to prolong the shelf life of tomato plants.
• Since then, GM soybeans, wheat and rice have been approved for agricultural use.
• Currently, GM crop production uses ~10% of the land as compared to non-GM crops.

Advantages:

• Can improve yield, delay ripening to prolong their shelf life, builds resistance to disease/pests, frost, or drought, or adds nutrients.
• Can be modified to reduce carbon emissions and boost the sustainability of food production.

GM controversy:

• Uncertainty (over-regulation) and concerns about safety (long-term impact on human-animal health and biodiversity).
• The monopoly of big corporations (like Monsanto) → expensive GM seeds.

GM crops in India:

• Indian farmers started cultivating Bt cotton – a pest-resistant, GM version of cotton, in 2002-03.
  • By 2014, around 96% of the area under cotton cultivation in India was Bt cotton, making India the 4th-largest cultivator of GM crops by acreage and the 2nd largest producer of cotton.
• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) cleared the environmental release of mustard hybrid Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11) for its seed production and testing
• Indian scientists have also developed strains of Sub-1 rice, which are much more resistant to flooding.
• Golden rice is a GM strain modified to contain vitamin A, to combat the shortage of dietary vitamin A in parts of Asia and Africa.

Way ahead:

• The focus of GM products must be on the social and public enterprise.
• The industry must look at more local solutions that help smallholder farmers in developing countries.
• Easy availability of open-source seeds and GM technologies.
• Creating a licensing landscape that empowers local farmers to adapt to the demands of sustainable agriculture, to meet rising populations and climate change.

Insta Links:

Genetic Modification in Crops

Prelims Links: (UPSC 2018)

Tags: GM crops, GS 3, Today’s article, 31 May CA