Will warming planet, population boom push skeptical consumers to embrace GMO, CRISPR crops?

wheat potatoes and soybeans
Scientists advance disease resistance in three of world's most economically important crops. Image: John Innes Centre

As part of an agricultural charm offensive by the US government, a group of British journalists was invited into the Wisconsin laboratory where in 1998 Monsanto developed …. Roundup Ready soybean. The development has allowed the spread of “no-till” farming, which is thought …. to reduce run-off of fertilizers and pesticides.

Monsanto no longer owns the lab. Two years ago it handed the lot over to the University of Wisconsin-Madison …. The university used the resource to set up its Crop Innovation Center, whose charming and affable associate director, Michael Petersen, showed us around.

“The UK has always been a challenge, since the early days,” he says. “They have always taken a conservative route. Most other countries are going the way of the United States.”

People say “it’s a GMO, so it’s bad. But stereotyping anything as bad is wrong,” he says.

Mr Petersen predicts that necessity will be the mother of adoption, when it comes to GM foods. “Climate change and population pressure will reach a point where we have to put our sensitivities aside,” he says.

Already some modifications introduced …. such as producing drought-resistant corn – are a response to climate change.

Read full, original article: Would you eat genetically modified food?

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