A very interesting article, Mallikarjun. Thanks for sharing. I mean no disrespect by the reply I am writing for I, too, appreciate what technology is able to provide us! The consumers' debate for the use of GE crops is alive and active here in the United States and in Europe. I think we in the United States need to have a more thorough review of upcoming GE introductions into our food system. Our track record here has been dismal in the use of any GE crop because of our lack of discipline when using these traits. I have been guilty of it when making recommendations to growers in my past career. We would lean on the traits and depend on them doing the job in an environment that they were not meant to handle. That is because we subjected the trait to intense, broad exposure in a very limited environment and the odds were quickly statistically stacked towards their failure. I use to have a narrower definition of the term "sustainable" but it has changed over the past couple years. Allow me to now address the use of GE for environmental reasons. Please allow me to provide a real world example. Let us take "drought tolerant corn. Lay people like me call it that but we know it is merely "dry weather tolerant" for a few weeks. Still, this is a trait with some very significant rapid pay pack to the farmer. The use of this trait has been shown to provide in excess of 50 bushels yield bumps. Now if we tinker with the genes enough we can make this trait express itself enough to perhaps grow corn in semi-arid environments. Who is going to control the decision of who gets to plant it and who does not? My guess is, everyone within a nation could have access to it, or at least suppliers in the nation could get it for sale. Now, if corn was not very popular to grow in the past, in fact, if few crops were grown in the region in the past, how will farmers get their newly acquired corn to market? It is a very expensive crop to raise and without a solid infrastructure in place, it may be very difficult to get the crop to buyers. South America has experienced that over the past decade with the rapid increase in soybean production due to the Round Up Ready trait being approved for use. Lines at the shipping points would stretch for miles and miles with people waiting days to unload. In the example I used, can the historically drought prone soils handle the increased yield expectations placed on them by the cropping of corn? Is there a plan in place to replenish the soil of nutrients removed because of the unregulated use of these new types of crops? I don't mean to criticize the trait's ability to perform and do what scientists say it will do. What I am concerned about is, first, can the environment handle the newly introduced crop in a sustainable fashion. Second, who will determine who and how quickly will this crop be introduced into the environment? I am NOT one who wants government to tell farmers who can and cannot utilized the tools they need to be stewards of their land. So, in light of this, I simply ask if we can effectively utilize tools like crops with GE field traits in the first place. You specifically state that GE allows us to bring solutions to the market more quickly than standard breeding. I can say that if the United States is used as a case study, you will see that this is an unraveling failure. Can other countries do a better job? I wrote a blog to tell the story of GE field traits and how successful it has been so far. Personally, I do not think it is wise to speed up trait development beyond traditional breeding methods because the rest of the "food system" cannot keep up with such speed. However, I have thought long about this and came to the conclusion that the debate doesn't even have to go the philosophical or religious level because we have been advancing the cause of GE traits for 20 years while it is debated. I wrote this blog based on the facts as they are. I allowed the responses of Nature to speak for themselves. https://profitablegrowthservices.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/two-weeds-and-a-worm/

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A very interesting article, Mallikarjun. Thanks for sharing. I mean no disrespect by the reply I am writing for I, too, appreciate what technology is able to provide us!

The consumers' debate for the use of GE crops is alive and active here in the United States and in Europe. I think we in the United States need to have a more thorough review of upcoming GE introductions into our food system. Our track record here has been dismal in the use of any GE crop because of our lack of discipline when using these traits. I have been guilty of it when making recommendations to growers in my past career. We would lean on the traits and depend on them doing the job in an environment that they were not meant to handle. That is because we subjected the trait to intense, broad exposure in a very limited environment and the odds were quickly statistically stacked towards their failure.

I use to have a narrower definition of the term "sustainable" but it has changed over the past couple years. Allow me to now address the use of GE for environmental reasons. Please allow me to provide a real world example. Let us take "drought tolerant corn. Lay people like me call it that but we know it is merely "dry weather tolerant" for a few weeks. Still, this is a trait with some very significant rapid pay pack to the farmer. The use of this trait has been shown to provide in excess of 50 bushels yield bumps. Now if we tinker with the genes enough we can make this trait express itself enough to perhaps grow corn in semi-arid environments. Who is going to control the decision of who gets to plant it and who does not? My guess is, everyone within a nation could have access to it, or at least suppliers in the nation could get it for sale. Now, if corn was not very popular to grow in the past, in fact, if few crops were grown in the region in the past, how will farmers get their newly acquired corn to market? It is a very expensive crop to raise and without a solid infrastructure in place, it may be very difficult to get the crop to buyers. South America has experienced that over the past decade with the rapid increase in soybean production due to the Round Up Ready trait being approved for use. Lines at the shipping points would stretch for miles and miles with people waiting days to unload.

In the example I used, can the historically drought prone soils handle the increased yield expectations placed on them by the cropping of corn? Is there a plan in place to replenish the soil of nutrients removed because of the unregulated use of these new types of crops?

I don't mean to criticize the trait's ability to perform and do what scientists say it will do. What I am concerned about is, first, can the environment handle the newly introduced crop in a sustainable fashion. Second, who will determine who and how quickly will this crop be introduced into the environment? I am NOT one who wants government to tell farmers who can and cannot utilized the tools they need to be stewards of their land. So, in light of this, I simply ask if we can effectively utilize tools like crops with GE field traits in the first place. You specifically state that GE allows us to bring solutions to the market more quickly than standard breeding. I can say that if the United States is used as a case study, you will see that this is an unraveling failure. Can other countries do a better job?

I wrote a blog to tell the story of GE field traits and how successful it has been so far. Personally, I do not think it is wise to speed up trait development beyond traditional breeding methods because the rest of the "food system" cannot keep up with such speed. However, I have thought long about this and came to the conclusion that the debate doesn't even have to go the philosophical or religious level because we have been advancing the cause of GE traits for 20 years while it is debated. I wrote this blog based on the facts as they are. I allowed the responses of Nature to speak for themselves.

https://profitablegrowthservices.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/two-weeds-and-a-worm/