GM food

Analysis and Comment (13)

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Leading biologists argue the world must embrace GM plants. Will de Freitas

Hacking plant ‘blood vessels’ could avert food crisis

By John Runions, Oxford Brookes University

Today’s wars are not about food, but not too far in the future they could be. The number of people dying of starvation has been falling for decades, but the decline in the numbers of hungry people is slowing…
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The Slow Food movement has arisen to counteract fast food and fast life. French Tart

Forget fast food, slow down for better well-being

By Lauren Williams, University of Canberra and John Germov, University of Newcastle

There’s an old saying, you are what you eat. If you look at the average Australian diet, we’re in trouble. The rise of the 24/7 society, unsocial work hours and an accelerating pace of life have led the…
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The French paper linking GM corn and cancer in rats should have been rejected on a number of grounds. Vermario

Genetically modified corn and cancer – what does the evidence really say?

By Ashley Ng, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini caused quite a stir last week when he claimed he’d shown cancer in rats increased when they were fed genetically modified corn and/or water spiked with the herbicide…
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Many people continue to worry about unexpected changes to food when it is genetically engineered. asian farmer/Flickr

Frankenfood or crops of the future? Gaps in the perception of GM food safety

By David Tribe, University of Melbourne

Humans have always faced tricky safety problems with food because we eat plants, which are the most ingenious pesticide chemists on the planet. Plants produce an amazing panoply of chemicals to deter animals…
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Canola is one of two GM crops approved in Australia. Ngarkat

Busting the GM myths: a view from Greenpeace

By Janet Cotter, University of Exeter

The Conversation recently published an article looking at the myths about genetic modification. This article is a rejoinder to that piece, and a contribution to the ongoing debate about whether there is…
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Feeding the world’s poor may not really be the main concern of companies that take out gene patents on crops. AAP

Is patenting crops really about feeding the hungry? A response

By Luigi Palombi

Michael Gilbert’s article starts with a title that poses a question – Will patenting crops help feed the hungry? Fair enough, except he then proceeds to provide an answer, which as the posted comments…
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GM crops are used in Australia to thwart pests such as the Cotton Bollworm (which also destroys corn). AAP/University of Melbourne

Will superbugs overwhelm insect-resistant GM crops?

By Richard Roush, University of Melbourne

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal spoke of rootworms in the US state of Iowa that had evolved resistance to a strain of genetically modified (GM) corn developed especially to thwart those rootworms…
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GM is not being used to make fishbread Frankenfoods. Dave Lifson/Flickr

Top five myths about genetic modification

By Richard Richards, CSIRO

The Conversation asked CSIRO scientist, Richard Richards, to look at the top five myths about genetic modification (GM), and correct the public record. Myth one: GM is just haphazard, imprecise cross…
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Despite attacks, CSIRO isn’t giving up on genetic research. AAP

CSIRO: GM essential for health and food security

By Megan Clark, CSIRO

Just as medical researchers work to unlock the role our human genes play in disease, CSIRO investigates how plant genes can be used to boost the health benefits of food, increase crop yields and prevent…
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The world’s population will be 9 billion by 2100. How will we feed ourselves? Herry Lawford/Wikimedia Commons

Time to modify the GM debate

By TJ Higgins, CSIRO

FOOD SECURITY – Here’s how things stand. More than 500 million farmers produce crops and livestock that can feed nearly 7 billion people, and yet 1 billion still go hungry. It’s estimated that the world…

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