Mankind must overcome GM fear, warns chief scientist

Mankind must overcome its fear of GM crops if it’s to survive a global hunger epidemic within the next 40 years, says the government’s chief science adviser.

According to Professor Sir John Beddington, issues such as swelling population levels, energy shortages and climate change will force widespread starvation if modern farming techniques aren’t embraced.

“If there are genetically modified organisms that actually solve problems that we can’t solve in other ways, and are shown to be safe from a human health point of view, and safe from an environmental point of view, and they can solve problems we can’t solve otherwise, then we should use them,” he says. “The sort of problems I am thinking of are new diseases which are likely to come with climate change, problems to do with drought and problems to do with the salination of ground. We need organisms that actually address that.”

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