Written by Jack Lundee
Earth is a sustainable planet that produces life, shelter, and sustenance to billions of its inhabitants, but the climate of this planet is changing and with that we must also change. To continue to reap the benefits of the planet’s nourishment we must figure out ways and solutions to produce food that is capable of braving the storm of climate change. Many solutions have presented themselves, but one stands out in front of the others as a potential fix to the food affected by climate change issue. That solution would be crops that are genetically modified.
Genetically modified foods or crops are plants created using the latest technology in microbiology and agricultural science. Much in the same way that certain animals are bred to carry on specific characteristics, genetically modified foods and crops are created to enhance certain traits that make them modified to certain areas, constructs, and situations. For example, many advantages of genetically modified food is that they can be made to be pest resistant, herbicide tolerant, disease resistant, extra nutritious, and most importantly can stand up to effects caused from climate change. This is pertinent to the global warming discussion because by creating crops that can protect Mother Nature from Mother Nature we can operate, produce, and consume food that can outlast any change in climate.
Since 1996, there has been a rapid growth in genetically engineered crops in the United States (with some crops like soybeans growing going from under 10 percent of acres used to over 90 in a 12 year span). This growth can be connected to organizations and companies investing in genetically modified crops as the future of food production and consumption. For example, US biotech companies like Monsanto have begun testing water efficient and drought tolerant engineered crops that can survive and continue to be produced in case of drought or flood cause from climate change. Even humanitarian organizations like the Clinton Global Initiative, organized by close personal aide to Former President Clinton, Doug Band, are working with agricultural research centers like the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to produce flood resistant rice crops that will help protect small rice producing villages that are effected by climate change produced flooding.
Sure, genetically modified foods do have their detractors who argue that the chemically altered food isn’t safe and hurts biodiversity, but the positives outweigh the negatives. Genetically modified foods are a clear solution to the effects of climate change and can help keep food production steady in an unsteady climate.
Written by Guest Expert
Jack Lundee is a follower of all things green and progressive. With a degree in creative writing, and a strong involvement in the green blogosphere, Jack has been producing and editing his own content concerning things like climate change, carbon emissions, green infrastructure, green space, and eco-consciousness.
“Earth is a sustainable planet” is, in the annals of ‘sustainability’, the boldest claim I have ever heard. I am of course in favor of GM crops, but the clamor surrounding ‘peak oil’, ‘overpopulation’, ‘desecration of pristine wilderness’, ‘poisoning the atmosphere with CO2’, and so on, drown out the message that things are sustainable here.
But this is a two-edged sword.
There is no shortage of learned pundits who claim that Earth is sustainable only if we impose limits on oil, population, deforestation, and CO2. (Which is a greatly abbreviated litany.)
Recently, great strides in the definition of ‘sustainability’ have been achieved, but the term remains a plaything of misanthropists, who must be opposed at every turn.
For our sake.
Regardless of the cause the one point that most people miss when talking about climate is that we have to be prepared for change. It is pure human fantasy to assume that the Earth today is some sort of steady state system that is supposed to remain exactly as it is. Ocean levels will change and coastlines along with it. Rain belts will shift (North Africa used to be the bread basket of the Roman Empire before the Sahara ate it) and glaciers will flow and retreat. Nearly all the ideas in the climate debate are built on the false supposition that the climate that supports the current geopolitical state is the norm. Let’s quit trying to find someone to blame and figure out how to deal with change that will come regardless of whose fault it is.
“Let’s quit trying to find someone to blame and figure out how to deal with change that will come regardless of whose fault it is.”
I agree, I’m not to blame for retreating or advancing oceans, neither are you. There are climatologists and climate alarmists all over the world who would disagree with that claim. They think that it is your fault and the fault of your Western capitalist economic system.
I agree also that we need to deal with changing climate, as in the ancient past humanity has always found a way to deal with the changing climate.
King Solomon said “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothin new under the sun.”