At a meeting in Brussels this week Dr Clive James, chair of the international service for the acquisition of agri-biotech applications (ISAAA) and a leading proponent of agricultural biotechnology for the developing world, said that global food production will need to be doubled by 2050 to meet the needs of a predicted world population of nine billion people. Biotech crops could make up the shortfall.
"No single approach will provide the solution,"said Dr James. "Conventional crop improvement alone will not double food production by 2050, and similarly, biotechnology is not a panacea - GM is not the silver bullet that will solve all of the problems."
Dr James expressed his firm belief that any successful strategy to meet the growing global demand for food would have to make use of multiple approaches, integrating both conventional and GM crops in order to optimise productivity.
The challenge, as he sees it, is how to accommodate diverse opinions on GM technology within a global strategy, especially given the sceptical stance of many in Europe, reports CORDIS.
Dr James accepted that concerns surrounding GM crops, such as food safety, their environmental impact and the issue of who owns the technology, are currently hampering acceptance in Europe, but he argued that these issues represent only one side of the argument.
"What many people in Europe must ask themselves is 'what are the risks of not adopting GM?'" said the scientists. He offered the example of a brain drain of scientific talent from Europe to other parts of the world, resulting in Europe not being at the cutting edge of the technology.
"What people must realise is that if Europe chooses to reject GM technology, it will be turning its back on the whole iceberg, not simply the tip," he added.
The ISAAA representive hopes that the new EU labelling and traceability rules, which came in to force on 18 April, will open up new developments in Europe and lead to the reestablishment of GM product approvals. A view that reflects the Commission position.
The introduction of practical coexistence measures should open the way for the cultivation of GM crops in Europe within the next five years, said Dr James, and he described the limited cultivation of GM maize in Spain as 'encouraging'.
When asked what benefits GM crops offer to consumers in Europe, Dr James accepted that the advantages for ordinary citizens are less evident than those for farmers. But he argued that 'value-added' products could be the path to acceptance. European consumers may be better persuaded by 'quality trait' GM varieties currently under development, such as a type of soya bean that can lower cholesterol levels in the body.
Ultimately the scientists claims that it is the potential benefits that GM crops can deliver in the developing world, in particular to relieve the 870 million people currently suffering from malnutrition, that Dr James considers the decisive argument in favour of the technology. "The problem may be that hunger is a difficult concept for consumers in the EU and US to relate to, " he concluded.