Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-in...-billions.html
Today, most people around the world have access to a greater variety of nutritious and affordable foods than ever before, thanks mainly to developments in agricultural science and technology. The average human life span--arguably the most important indicator of quality of life--has increased steadily in the past century in almost every country. Even in many less developed countries, life spans have doubled over the past few decades. Despite massive population growth, from 3 billion to more than 6 billion people since 1950, the global malnutrition rate decreased in that period from 38 percent to 18 percent. India and China, two of the world's most populous and rapidly industrializing countries, have quadrupled their grain production.
The record of agricultural progress during the past century speaks for itself. Countries that embraced superior agricultural technologies have brought unprecedented prosperity to their people, made food vastly more affordable and abundant, helped stabilize farm yields, and reduced the destruction of wild lands. The productivity gains from G.M. crops, as well as improved use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, allowed the world's farmers to double global food output during the last 50 years, on roughly the same amount of land, at a time when global population rose more than 80 percent. Without these improvements in plant and animal genetics and other scientific developments, known as the Green Revolution, we would today be farming on every square inch of arable land to produce the same amount of food, destroying hundreds of millions of acres of pristine wilderness in the process.
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first off, i would challenge the 'more nutritious' claim. modern industrial food has been either bred or modified for high yields, conformity of size for harvesting ease, durability of transportation etc.. i have seen no evidence of more nutrition in the food system.
'superior agricultural technologies'? they mean herbicides and pesticides that allow conventional farmers to mono crop year after year and destroy the soild, rendering it void of nutrients and bacterial life.
as soon as they mention gm crops, you should be hearing alarm bells going off. a recent
article reports that a new pathogen has been discovered in genetically modified crops, which may be responsible for high infertility rates and spontaneous abortions in livestock.
the bolded part of your quote; i don't buy it for a second. sustainable agriculture methods offer another way: rebuilding soils with compost and mulch, conserving water through ecologically intelligent landscape design, and replacing monoculture by planting mutually beneficial crops together. with
permaculture, we can create sustainable farming jobs and abundant harvests, while rebuilding ecosystems.