Someday soon the world's poorest and most hungry may be growing the world's most sophisticated crops. At the 21st annual World Food Day teleconference, experts discussed the role of agricultural biotechnology in ending world hunger. UW-Madison students, staff and faculty watched the teleconference in the Pyle Center Oct. 15, joining almost one thousand other sites, mainly universities, participating in the event.
Due to failures of the current world food distribution system, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been thrust into the center of international debate. A GMO is a food crop that contains one or more extra pieces of genetic information, specifically added in a laboratory to improve the crop in some way.
Proponents say GMOs can end world hunger. Crops can be genetically modified to grow in poor soils or dry climates, to grow faster and to produce larger food yields. GMOs can also curb malnutrition by producing specific nutrients.
Philipe Montega was a featured expert at the teleconference. A top advisor in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said the pace of biotechnological advances in agriculture in developing countries is
ot [progressing] fast enough, not enough for their needs.""
So why did Zambia turn down U.S. offers of genetically modified, or GM, food aid in 2002 despite countrywide starvation? Zambian officials claimed biotech foods were not yet scientifically proven suitable for human consumption, calling them ""poisonous.""
Some fear GMOs because the foods contain extra genetic material, which can come from other plants, animals or even fish. Because of this piecing together of different genetic materials, GM crops are sometimes called ""Frankenfoods.""
Johanne Brunet, UW-Madison assistant professor of horticulture, specializes in tracking the spread of GMO genes and assessing the impact of these genes on the environment. When people ask her about this concern, she has a standard reply.
""I always tell people, when you eat fish, all the fish amino acids [proteins] get into your system. [The fish protein] is the same [when produced] in a plant,"" she said.
When asked what worries her about GMOs, Lynn Olson, member services manager of the Williamson Street Co-Op in Madison, said ""cross-contamination is number one.""
""A bee in nature doesn't know the difference between a GMO and a non-GMO plant,"" Olson said.
While acknowledging the risk of contamination is real, Brunet said, ""There are a lot of barriers between hybridization of GMO and native crops."" Specifically, GMOs can only contaminate plants that are nearby, of the same species, and that flower at the same time.
Ironically, GMOs would not be needed if the world food distribution system worked as originally envisioned.
Dr. Werner Kiene, the World Food Program's representative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, said during the teleconference more than 800 million families worldwide face hunger, even though ""there's plenty [of food] to go around.""
