One-tenth of the world’s population – 811 million people – were undernourished in 2020. That’s an increase of 161 million in just a year, as much as the previous five years combined.
The effects of world hunger were felt most keenly in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa, where the 2020 increase was most prominent.
Gene editing has the potential to produce higher-yielding, nutrient-rich crops that are resistant to disease, climate change, and pests. It has been heralded as a potential revolutionary of global food production, but could it be the solution to ending world hunger?
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Perhaps the most famous genetically modified organism, or GMO, crop is golden rice – a rice variety with added zinc, iron, and the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene – which was developed to combat malnutrition in parts of the world where rice is a staple of the diet.
Because gene-edited crops contain no added DNA, in many places – including the US – they are not subject to the same stringent regulations as GM crops. It also means that they are not vilified in the same way as GM crops, although the two are often confused, which can give gene editing a bad name.
