Monsanto CEO: GMO debate doesn’t need to be ‘either/or’

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.

Monsanto has become a favorite target for opponents of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Food and Water Watch, for example, has created a webpage titled Five Things Monsanto Doesn’t Want You to Know About GMOs. It argues that GMOs have failed to live up to their hype, require more chemical use than comparable non-GMO plants and have been insufficiently researched and studied. . .

This brings us to the feed-the-world argument that is central to Monsanto’s messaging. With a growing global population and an emerging middle class in China and India, the world is going to need a lot more food, Grant says. And he’s not the only person making this prediction: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN has estimated that we need to grow 60% more food by 2050.

“We need to produce more on less land and use less stuff, stuff meaning fertilizer and water,” Grant says. Precision agriculture, cover crops, drip irrigation and a “more intimate knowledge of microbes in soil” will all help, he says, adding that biotech will also be an essential tool.

. . .Some packaged food companies are struggling even as organic foods and food carrying the non-GMO label are rapidly growing their sales.

Is this a concern for Monsanto?

“I have no problem with it, whatsoever,” Grant says. It’s the polarization of the debate about food that frustrates him. “I’d love to see us get to a point where it’s not an either/or. It’s an and.”

Read full, original post: Can Monsanto’s CEO move the debate about GMOs beyond good versus evil?

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