Question
Suppose theres a country that completely unable to supply their own food selfsufficiency it wont be damaged by GMO, however, if theres a country that can supply their own food in some degree, which allows its farmers to inpour GMO, wont it damage the countries self sufficiency? Please explain us the relationship between GMO usage and countries self sufficiency.
Submitted by: Yoon.J.Choi
Answer
Expert response from Dr. Stuart Smyth
Assistant Professor, Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics, University of Saskatchewan
Wednesday, 16/12/2015 16:22
If a country doesn’t produce enough food to be self-sufficient, adopting GM crops that increase crop yields will be a good thing for that country as it will increase the total amount of food produced.
Canada and the United States are examples of countries that are self-sufficient in food production and have adopted GM crops. If a country is self-sufficient in terms of food production, then adopting GM crops will result in more food production. This country could then export the food that it doesn’t consume and receive money to buy more of the products it doesn’t have enough of. For example, Canada produces more GM canola than it can consume. Canada does not produce oranges. Canada is able to sell the GM canola to other countries and then use this money to buy oranges for Canadians to eat.
This is a simple way of explaining this and the real market is much more complicated. When countries are able to produce more of a product than they can consume, they are able to export this surplus.
Depending on what the product is, the country could store some of the surplus for a time when there is a shortage of that product.
Answer
Expert response from Dr. Stuart Smyth
Assistant Professor, Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics, University of Saskatchewan
Wednesday, 16/12/2015 16:22
If a country doesn’t produce enough food to be self-sufficient, adopting GM crops that increase crop yields will be a good thing for that country as it will increase the total amount of food produced.
Canada and the United States are examples of countries that are self-sufficient in food production and have adopted GM crops. If a country is self-sufficient in terms of food production, then adopting GM crops will result in more food production. This country could then export the food that it doesn’t consume and receive money to buy more of the products it doesn’t have enough of. For example, Canada produces more GM canola than it can consume. Canada does not produce oranges. Canada is able to sell the GM canola to other countries and then use this money to buy oranges for Canadians to eat.
This is a simple way of explaining this and the real market is much more complicated. When countries are able to produce more of a product than they can consume, they are able to export this surplus.
Depending on what the product is, the country could store some of the surplus for a time when there is a shortage of that product.
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