ARTICLE: Farmers Seek a New and Improved GMO Debate

The following is an excerpt from an article by Brian Barth at Modern Farmer on what a socially and environmentally beneficial genetically modified crop might look like.

Our recent feature on GMOs caused plenty of heated debate, and some pretty pointed criticisms from leading thinkers in the world of food and farming. But it also garnered praise as a rare example of balanced pro-environment, pro-farmer, pro-common sense reporting on the subject. The piece was not intended as either pro- or anti-GMO. Instead, the goal was to explore what a socially and environmentally beneficial genetically modified crop might look like.

In my quest to understand why, exactly, GMOs cause so much agitation on both sides of the debate, I was surprised to find a large, less-vocal majority in the middle. These people, many of them farmers, don’t take issue with the technology itself, but how it is applied. Rather than arguead nauseam over the latest contradicting studies that seem to indicate as many possible benefitsof GMOs as there are potential drawbacks, this group views biotechnology like a hammer in agriculture’s toolbox. You can use it to beat nature up and endanger the food supply, or you can set about building a healthy food system with it.

The GMO debate has been dominated by scientists, business interests, politicians, advocacy groups, and journalists—but the farmers caught in the middle of it often have a less ideological, more practical point of view, some of which we’ve published below.

You can read the rest of the article here.