Genetically modified crops will be popular

Science and Technology Daily News As the soaring food prices and global food shortages have grown, the attitudes of governments, food companies, and consumers that have long resisted GM crops have eased. They feel the enormous pressure of food shortages, and they may begin to accept genetically modified crops. Filling their stomachs may be more important than health concerns.

Hunger is more important than health

In Japan and Korea, some manufacturers of soft drinks, fast foods, and other food products began to change the way they buy raw materials. In the past, in order to avoid consumers' antagonism to GM crops, manufacturers have always spent more money to buy traditional crops such as corn. However, the price of grain has tripled in the past two years. The current price is so expensive that it makes manufacturing. The business is unbearable and can no longer take into account the feelings of consumers and begins to purchase GM crops as raw materials for production. A Japanese manufacturer of corn starch and corn juice complained when buying raw corn: "We really can't afford it and the price of corn is too expensive."

In the United States, wheat growers and sellers have also changed their attitude toward GM wheat. Since genetically modified crops contain genes introduced from microorganisms, the introduction of these genes can prevent pests, herbicides and other pesticides and diseases, thereby greatly reducing costs and increasing production. However, countries such as the European Union, Japan, and South Korea have refused to accept GM crops for many years. Worries about the introduction of foreign genes in these crops may cause harm to human health and the environment. The United States is a major exporter of crops. If large numbers of genetically modified crops are grown in spite of opposition from these countries, they are afraid that they will not be able to sell them. Therefore, the United States has been minimizing the planting area of ​​genetically modified crops. These concerns now seem to be less important. The United States began actively planting genetically modified wheat to expand its export output and share.

Steve, the spokesperson for the American Wheat Association (an organization that supports Americans’ export of wheat), said that the current situation is clear that the issue of food prices and supply shortages have gradually changed the way people think. They are now focusing on how to fill Belly, and no longer preoccupied with food cultivation.

The American Wheat Association reminded American farmers to carefully grow genetically modified wheat. Now it has changed its direction, allowing seed companies to re-incubate genetically modified wheat seeds, and strives to allow foreign merchants to accept American GM wheat and increase exports.

Even in Europe, attitudes have been loosened in places where opposition to GM crops has been strongest. Some government officials and business representatives in EU countries began to call on the EU to approve the import of genetically modified crops as soon as possible, canceling the previous ban on the import of genetically modified crops. EU governments are also constantly receiving complaints from poultry farmers - if they do not increase imports of crops, they will suffer from a severe shortage of feed.

The British Cattle Breeders Association issued a statement in July stating that in order to actively respond to the unfavorable factors such as the current food demand faced by cattle farmers, the increasing risk of global food shortages, and the decline in animal production in the UK, the UK All bans on GM crops should be scrapped immediately to ease the current grim situation.

Ner Parrish, chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, said that Europeans’ attitude towards GM foods has become more “pragmatic”. Although they are still skeptical in their hearts, survival seems to be more important.

Opportunities for genetically modified crops

Since food problems such as food robberies looted in some countries in some countries had caused people to think about it and people began to worry about how to fill their stomachs in the future, proponents of long-term support for genetically modified foods saw their own opportunities. They called for genetically modified foods to be considered dispensable or unnecessary when food is rich enough to meet demand, but the current situation is that the demand for food materials and the demand for foodstuffs from biofuel development will be drastic in the coming decades. With the increase, GM crops will surely play an important role in solving food problems.

Of course, any new opportunity to recognize GM crops will bring great benefits to the U.S. export industry. After all, the U.S. is a large producer of genetically modified crops. In the last year alone, the United States accounted for half of the world's GM crop area. In addition, countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Canada are also planting large quantities of genetically modified corn, soybeans and canola.

With rice and wheat prices doubling in recent months, countries are facing pressure to reassess GM crops, and violent protests have taken place in Cameroon, Egypt, Haiti and Thailand. The reasons behind the soaring food prices are relatively complex. The United States believes there are four main reasons: the diversion of demand for crops from the development of biofuels, the rise in energy prices, the rapid economic growth in developing countries, and the major agricultural countries such as Australia and other countries and regions. Drought and so on.

GM crops still face resistance

Although faced with opportunities for development, GM crops are still facing development resistance. European polls show that the attitude of Europeans to genetically modified crops has not changed decisively. Moreover, the GM crop industry has recently encountered new resistance. At the beginning of this year, the French government promulgated a ban on the cultivation of genetically modified corn in France. The German government passed legislation that must indicate “without genetic modification” on the label of the food it sells.

On July 1st, an international assessment report on future agricultural development was released. The report was made after a comprehensive study of more than 60 countries. The report did not expressly support the status of genetically modified crops in solving the problem of hunger. This attitude caused dissatisfaction among the biotech companies involved in the survey. These companies decided to withdraw from the research project to protest.

Hans Henren, one of the project's heads, said that for African countries, providing them with fertilizer is more productive than introducing genetically modified crop seeds. “The problems farmers need to solve are: agricultural water conservancy issues, fertile land Problems and market sales of agricultural products."

Opponents of genetically modified crops said they did not see opportunities for the development of genetically modified crops. The chief executive of Syngenta, the world's leading agrochemical and biotechnology giant, even reminded relevant industry people not to use them. The current food crisis has promoted the development of the transgenic crop industry.

Regardless of the importance of biotechnology in the final status of agricultural development, the current status quo is that food shortages have made it difficult for consumers to avoid buying the fate of GM crops.

For the manufacturers of corn starch and corn sugar produced in Japan and the United States, the main reason for their purchase of GM corn is that they have no other choice. The corn raw materials used by these manufacturers are mainly imported from the United States, and the corn planting area in the United States, genetically modified crops It has risen from 40% in 2003 to 75% in last year. And because the global food supply is getting tighter, it is more and more difficult to buy non-GM corn from other countries. With the soaring corn prices, corn processing plants and food production companies are no longer able to increase the additional cost of distinguishing between non-genetically modified corn and genetically modified corn, and this cost is also rising. In South Korea, the price of non-GM corn has increased from US$143/tonne in 2006 to US$450/tonne today, while the price of GE corn is currently only US$350/tonne.

Poultry farmers in Europe stated that according to the EU's current regulations on genetically modified crops, once they are unable to purchase higher-priced crops, there will be a blank period for feed supply interruption. Because according to the regulations, even if the U.S. government approves a GM crop planting permit, Europe will have to observe a few years before it can approve the introduction of this GM crop. During these years of inspection, it is very likely that the feed supply will be interrupted, making it difficult for poultry breeding. Following.

Moreover, European law also stipulates that once a genetically modified crop is found in the imported grain, the entire ship’s imported grain must be returned and cannot enter European territory. The cornmeal imported from the United States last year to Europe suffered such special treatment. European feed manufacturers and poultry farmers hope that the EU can expedite the approval of permits for the import of genetically modified crops, and relax provisions to allow entry of whole ships with a small amount of genetically modified ingredients.

In the United States, even though GM crops have been widely recognized, wheat companies have been cautious about GM wheat and now they have to rethink their reluctance to accept GM wheat. Since half of the US wheat needs to be exported for export, wheat farmers and processing companies are concerned that foreign merchants have refused to accept their genetically modified products and have refused to plant large quantities of genetically modified wheat. In 2004, Monsanto suspended the development of the first generation of genetically modified wheat because of strong opposition from American farmers.

But now, some US farmers and processing companies have stated that because there are no seeds of genetically modified wheat, many American farmers prefer to plant genetically modified corn and soybeans rather than planting non-genetically modified wheat. The area under which wheat is grown is becoming less and less, resulting in the United States The output of wheat has been greatly reduced, and the price of wheat has risen. According to relevant US comments, the wheat-related industries are paying the price for the “hesitation” of GM technology.