GM

Imagine this. Low fat French Fries. It seems like an oxymoron. Believe it or not scientists have almost finished developing a potato which absorbs less oil so soon going to Maccas may no longer bee a guilty pleasure. The reason I know this is because I've spent 6 weeks or so researching everything about Transgenic Organisms. It's an interesting issue which has evoked strong views on both sides. For this internal I have to decide 'which side are you on?' It's very difficult. I've never had to make a decision for an internal before. It's difficult because there is one major argument for GM crops and a couple of little arguments which form a strong argument against GM crops.

I'm incredibly lucky today I ate porridge for breakfast, toast for lunch, pasta for dinner (and more but I'm shamed to admit it). When I feel hungry then I walk the 20 or so metres to the fridge and snack on a slab of blue cheese or a slab of sour cream chocolate cake. I'm the 6 out of 7. That's to say the 6 out of 7 people who aren't hungry. 1/7 people in the world go to sleep each night hungry. They wake up hungry and they have to live, hungry. It's an unpleasant reality. They don't have the luxury of putting another piece of toast in the toaster. Morally we have to do something to feed these people and it gets worse. The worlds population is expected to increase by 40% to 9.4 billion by 2050. Not only do we have to feed the billion or so people who are starving but we have to think about the 3.4 billion people who are soon to come. It's a dilemma.

This is the dilemma which has caused the idea of Genetically Modified organisms to leap across the front page with slogans like "Finally, a solution". GM crops promise to increase crop yields substantially. For example in Hawaii GM Papaya Farmers have experienced a yield increase of 44%. This efficient modern form of farming allows more food to be produced without resorting to deforestation to make more farmland. GM food is seen as a simple way to feed the world. We have a moral obligation to feed these people therefore we have a moral obligation to use every tool at our disposal we shrug our shoulders and watch them die because the earth has reached it's capacity.

There's always this scathing voice in the back of my head that incessantly says "really?" That's because in 78% of starving children live in places with food surpluses. The problem isn't a shortage of food it's a matter of poverty. The people who starve in Africa don't starve because there isn't food they starve because they don't have access to food. That's sad. It reflects the major mistake which we made as human kind in instigating our money system as a way to order the world. Economics doesn't understand humanity. It believes that we are all rational consumers.

GM has countless other benefits which I really can't be bothered explaining however I will list them.

• They use 1/3 less nitrogen fertiliser. Nitrogen emissions make up 6% of global emissions.
• Golden rice (a form of GM crop) contains vitamin A and would prevent 250000-500000 children from going blind each year.
• It provides higher profits.
• It requires less energy intensive farming

There's one big thing against GM. The icky factor. We are creating organisms which have never walked the planet before. How are we to know how their new gene will react with other genes? with other plants? with the entire eco system? It comes down to the fundamental point of who are we to play god? It's unnatural and we can never be fully aware of the consequences of our experiments until we see one of our consequences destroying the world we live in. Wow I guess it looks like I've chosen my view point. Against GM all the way... except of course for vaccine tomatoes and medicinal purposes and golden rice since I want those kids to be able to see....