FOOD producers will have little choice but to use genetically modified crops
to feed the growing population, according to US agribusiness specialist John
Baize.
"People need to look ahead and see what we are facing here," he told The
Australian in an exclusive interview.

"We saw the food prices this year that went through the roof across the
world.

"It is only going to get more intense if you look at the population growth
in the future."

He says that feeding an estimated billion extra people, mostly in the
poorest countries, by the year 2040 will come down to a few choices, based
on official US government forecasts.

"Either we say we are going to eat less, which is not realistic, or we cut
down rainforest on critical lands to expand production, or we boost
productivity.

"To me that is a very simple question. You go to where you can use the best
technology to increase productivity -- and that is biotechnology."

The problem, he says, is that there is little room left to expand
agriculture.

Baize says the only options are clearing forests in countries like Brazil
and Borneo. He says farming needs warm weather and water. "That is going to
put you in the tropics and that will mean deforestation."

The alternative is to increase yields, he says. "In corn or maize in the US,
we are getting rapid increases in yield, but they are coming from biotech
corn varieties which are stacked with different traits so they are resistant
to the corn borer, the corn root worm, and they also are
glyphosate-tolerant."

Baize is based in Virginia in the US, where most of the corn, cotton and
soybeans now grown are genetically modified.

He says the GM plants require minimal pesticide and less ploughing, which
means less fuel is used.

He says farmers have seen yields increase by 10 to 15 per cent, and have
been quick to adopt GM crops. "Over 90 per cent of soybeans in the US are
biotech, effectively 100 per cent of Argentina is biotech, probably 65 per
cent of Brazil is, and it will go up to 90 per cent as fast as they can get
there."

Baize says crops genetically modified to tolerate drought would greatly
increase productivity in dry parts of Australia.

While GM crops have been accepted in most of the Americas, it is a different
story in Europe and Australia. In Australia, GM cotton is grown in NSW and
Queensland. It has resulted in a reduction in herbicide and insecticide use
of between 56 and 75 per cent. Both NSW and Victoria recently allowed the
cultivation of GM canola. But GM crops are banned in South Australia,
Western Australia and Tasmania. Baize, in Australia to address clients of
Optimal Funds Management, notes there is "a scepticism over there (in
Europe) about science and government. There are many similarities between
biotechnology and nuclear power.

"Both of them, the lay person doesn't understand them. It is easy to sow
doubts and fears in people."

Baize argues that worrying about GM crops "is a luxury of certain people in
wealthy countries. The people in poor countries are concerned about the
volume of food they get: they want to be able to afford food."

He says the sooner that Australia has a debate on GM, "to look at the facts
rather than the emotion and the innuendo, the quicker Australia will move
forward".
www.checkbiotech.org