By Jimmy Doherty

Genetic modification is one of the great contentious issues of 21st
Century science.

To some it is a powerful technology that could boost food production and
prevent famines; to others it is a dangerously untested science that
threatens environmental disaster.

The BBC Horizon programme sent Jimmy Doherty - an advocate of
sustainable farming - on a personal mission to get at some of the truths
on GM.

Can GM crops save the world? It's not a question most people would
expect me to be asking.

They look at the way I farm and assume that I'd be opposed to GM
technology. But my attitude towards GM is more complicated than that.

I trained as a scientist; I was studying for a PhD in entomology when I
started the farm, and I'm fascinated by genetic technology.

It could be an incredibly powerful tool if it's used properly. But on
the other hand I think how we produce our food is really important, and
I run my farm according to the principles I believe in.

All our animals are raised outdoors, we don't use any chemical
pesticides or fertilisers and we try to work with nature as much as
possible.

So I've spent the last six months travelling around the world to
investigate GM crops. I wanted to find out if they had a role to play in
our agricultural systems or whether the environmental and health
concerns make it too risky.

No fear

The first thing I found was that much of the rest of the world does not
share Europe's concerns about GM technology.

GM crops were planted on over 100 million hectares last year - that's
about 10% of the world's crops which are now genetically modified. And
it really seems to be working for the farmers.

I visited Argentina where they've adopted GM technology in a big way.

Every year they plant an area larger than Britain with GM soya beans.

The beans are much more profitable to grow than conventional beans and
they have become the country's biggest export. They almost
single-handedly rescued Argentina from economic meltdown when they were
introduced in the late 1990s.

But there have been downsides. The GM production system works best when
grown on a large scale and many smaller farmers have been squeezed off
their land by the expansion of the mega-farms and huge areas of natural
forest are being cleared to make way for more soya.

Lifestyle changes

In the US, GM technology has become even more widespread.

In Pennsylvania I met Amish farmers whose lifestyle hasn't changed for
decades. But even though they still use horse-drawn machinery to tend
their fields, they also grow GM crops.

They grow a variety of corn that produces its own insecticide. It means
their crops suffer from much lower levels of insect damage and they have
to spray much less pesticide. And that has got to be a good thing for
the farmers and for the environment.

But there are other concerns about the environmental effects of GM
crops. My biggest fear is that the genetically modified genes may spread
into other non-GM crops.

We know that this gene-flow does happen, and if it were to occur on a
wide scale, it would mean that you couldn't guarantee any crops were
truly GM free.

That would be bad news for conventional and organic farmers who don't
want to grow GM crops, and for anyone who doesn't want to eat GM food.

Although I've seen no evidence that eating GM crops is bad for you I do
believe that you should have the choice to avoid GM if you want to.

On balance, I'd say we don't really need the GM crops we have at the
moment.

Pros and cons

The only people who really seem to benefit are the farmers who grow the
crops and seed companies who provide the seeds, while there are
environmental risks that affect us all.

But I don't think that we should turn our backs on GM either.

It is still a young technology and I think its real use may lie in the
future.

Imagine if GM could be used to create crops that produced higher yields,
or were resistant to drought or could even fix their own nitrogen and
produce their own fertiliser.

While that's a possibility, we need to proceed with research into GM. We
need to make sure it's safe - but we may really need it in the future.

At the moment we are facing a food crisis. The world's population is
increasing.

Arable land is being used to produce biofuels, the increased demand for
meat, particularly in India and China, is raising demand for animal
feed. Climate change. All these factors are putting our food supply
under pressure.

Most estimates suggest we need to double the amount of food we produce
in the next 50 years.

The biggest challenges will lie in Africa - where agricultural
productivity has been falling and 30% of the population is permanently
under-nourished.

If anywhere needs to benefit from farming technology, it is here. No-one
is saying GM is the total solution to all these problems. But if there
is a chance it can provide some of the answers, then we need to pursue
it.

Horizon: Jimmy's GM Food Fight will be broadcast on BBC Two on 25
November at 9pm

Jimmy Doherty is a farmer and scientist whose rare breed pig farm was
featured in the BBC Two series Jimmy's Farm.
www.checkbiotech.org