Can genetically modified organisms feed the world?

For non-governmental organizations campaigning to protect the environment and preserve biodiversity, such as the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) network, this deal "could kneecap other, low-tech and more cost-effective solutions, such as re-introducing the many vitamin-rich food plants that were once cheap and available."

Lessons from the past

Will GMOs help wipe out malnutrition? The golden rice episode has set the tone for the debate. Advocates say it would be utopian to wait for a better world while existing technology can help solve the problem here and now: "Some argue that lack of food is simply a problem of unequal distribution.

If poor people were not poor, they could buy the food they need," says Rockefeller Foundation president Gordon Conway. "This is true, but over simplistic. There are no signs the world is about to engage in a massive redistribution of wealth."

Adversaries of the "GMO revolution" have diametrically opposed priorities: equity first, technology later. Otherwise, they say, the same mistakes that were made during the 1960s will be repeated. The Green Revolution "increased production and the number of poor people at the same time," says Jean-Pierre Roca, director of France's Institute for Training and Support to Development Initiatives. "Where there isn't a credit system, middlemen and the powerful are the ones who appropriate improved seeds and the use of pesticides. The poorest farmers must go into debt and sell their land to wealthier ones. GMOs are hazardous if measures aren't taken to go along with them."

A pragmatic Nwanze says that "GMOs aren't a priority. First it is necessary to improve the conditions of agricultural production and soil management, keep the ground from getting hard after clearing and decrease rice imports by impoverished West African countries. All that can be achieved without GMOs, which run the risk of impoverishing biodiversity." .

(1.) In 1996-98, 792 million of whom live in developing countries (34% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, 35% of the population in Asia) and 34 million in the developed countries (source: FAQ, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization).

(2.) U.N. World Population Prospects: the 1998 Revision (United Nations, New York, 1999).

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