you can now find it on http://www.feedingthefuture.eu

Interesting article indeed. I personally think that, given the circumstances, if people were made more aware of the benefits that GM can bring then they wouldn’t be quite so negative – it’s clear there are many benefits that would substantially impact the environment in a positive way.

I agree this seems like a good step to reduce the amount of pollution that the current nitrogen fertilizers produce. What needs to be done though is making the public aware, not only of the benefits that GM can bring to the environment – but the problems that exist with pollution within current crop production.

Regards,
Lee

Its very true that nitrogen fertilizers enable farmers to achieve high yields that drive modern agriculture. The use of nitrogen fertilizer will continue to increase substantially as global population and food requirements grows.
While fertilizers are effective in driving crop yield improvements but they also have a negative impact on the environment. Most plants are able to utilize less than one-half of the nitrogen fertilizer applied by growers, much of the remaining nitrogen fertilizer leaches into the air, soil and water and causes polution.

Regards
Amrita

Regardless, the real battle is surely not with the small farmers or their local communities, but with the governments and voters (and conflicting interests) in the countries whose researchers perfect such technologies.

To do this would seem to require convincing people that such progress is not simply an extension into agriculture by a hated corporate hegemony (perhaps by keeping the research at public labs and away from private companies, somehow), that the GM crops won’t damage the ecosystem or our bodies (however unlikely both may seem to those in the ivory towers of research), and to slay the idea that genetic research is somehow “playing god”, and is unpalatable for that gut reaction alone.

The first is very hard to achieve because of the ties between government, business and funding. The second is very hard to prove due to the size and complexity of the systems. The third is nigh on impossible to achieve as feelings and beliefs seem not to respond to logic, coercion and certainly not by recourse to “the greater good”.

GM crops altered to fix nitrogen will be produced, now it’s possible to do so. They do have the potential to increase yields in a post-oil world. But to see them accepted and introduced widely, and making a real difference to the global population, is a far far trickier thing to achieve than simply splicing genes.