GMO Myths and Truths

7.1 Myth: GM crops are needed
to feed the world’s growing
population
Truth: GM crops are
irrelevant to feeding the world
“We strongly object that the image of
the poor and hungry from our countries
is being used by giant multinational
corporations to push a technology that
is neither safe, environmentally friendly
nor economically beneficial to us. We
do not believe that such companies or
gene technologies will help our farmers
to produce the food that is needed in
the 21st century. On the contrary, we
think it will destroy the diversity, the
local knowledge and the sustainable
agricultural systems that our farmers
have developed for millennia, and that it
will thus undermine our capacity to feed
ourselves.”
– Statement signed by 24 delegates from 18
African countries to the United Nations Food
and Agricultural Organization, 1998
“If anyone tells you that GM is going to
feed the world, tell them that it is not…
To feed the world takes political and
financial will.”
– Steve Smith, head of GM company Novartis
Seeds UK (now Syngenta), public meeting on
proposed local GM farm scale trial, Tittleshall,
Norfolk, UK, 29 March 2000
GM crops are promoted as a way of solving world
hunger at a time when the population is expected
to increase. But it is difficult to see how GM can
contribute to solving world hunger when there are
no GM crops available that increase intrinsic yield
(see Section 5). Nor are there any GM crops that
are better than non-GM crops at tolerating poor
soils or challenging climate conditions.
Instead, most currently available GM crops are
7. FEEDING THE WORLD
Section at a glance
u GM crops are promoted as necessary to feed
the world’s growing population. But it seems
unlikely that they could make a significant
contribution as they do not deliver higher
yields or produce more with less inputs than
non-GM crops.
u Most GM crops are engineered to tolerate
herbicides or to express a pesticide –
properties that are irrelevant to solving
hunger.
u Hunger is not caused by a lack of food in the
world. It is a problem of distribution and
poverty, which GM cannot solve.
u The IAASTD report, authored by over 400
international experts, concluded that the key
to food security lay in agroecological farming
methods. The report did not endorse GM,
noting that yields were “variable” and that
better solutions were available.
u Agroecological farming has resulted in
significant yield and income benefits to
farmers in the Global South, while preserving
soil for future generations.
u GM is not needed to feed the world.
Conventional plant breeding has already
delivered crops that are high-yielding,
disease- and pest-resistant, tolerant of
drought and other climatic extremes, and
nutritionally enhanced – at a fraction of the
cost of GM.
engineered for herbicide tolerance or to contain a
pesticide, or both. The two major GM crops, soy
and maize, mostly go into animal feed, biofuels to
power cars, and processed human food – products
for developed nations that have nothing to do
with meeting the basic food needs of the poor and
hungry. GM corporations are answerable to their
shareholders and thus are interested in profitable
commodity markets, not in feeding the poor and
hungry.
Even if a GM crop did appear that gave higher
yields than non-GM crops, this would not impact
GMO Myths and Truths 107