Advanced BioFuels USA

by Mitch Daniels (The Washington Post)  Of the several claims of “anti-science” that clutter our national debates these days, none can be more flagrantly clear than the campaign against modern agricultural technology, most specifically the use of molecular techniques to create genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Here, there are no credibly conflicting studies, no arguments about the validity of computer models, no disruption of an ecosystem nor any adverse human health or even digestive problems, after 5 billion acres have been cultivated cumulatively and trillions of meals consumed.

And yet a concerted, deep-pockets campaign, as relentless as it is baseless, has persuaded a high percentage of Americans and Europeans to avoid GMO products, and to pay premium prices for “non-GMO” or “organic” foods that may in some cases be less safe and less nutritious. Thank goodness the toothpaste makers of the past weren’t cowed so easily; the tubes would have said “No fluoride inside!” and we’d all have many more cavities.

This is the kind of foolishness that rich societies can afford to indulge. But when they attempt to inflict their superstitions on the poor and hungry peoples of the planet, the cost shifts from affordable to dangerous and the debate from scientific to moral.

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Today, their scientific successors are giving birth to a new set of miracles in plant production and animal husbandry that cannot only feed the world’s growing billions but do so in far more sustainable, environmentally friendly ways.

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Given the emphatic or, as some like to say, “settled” nature of the science, one would expect a united effort to spread these life-saving, planet-sparing technologies as fast as possible to the poorer nations who will need them so urgently. Instead, we hear demands that developing countries forgo the products that offer them the best hope of joining the well-fed, affluent world.

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 It’s time to move the argument to a new plane. For the rich and well-fed to deny Africans, Asians or South Americans the benefits of modern technology is not merely anti-scientific. It’s cruel, it’s heartless, it’s inhumane — and it ought to be confronted on moral grounds that ordinary citizens, including those who have been conned into preferring non-GMO Cheerios, can understand. READ MORE includes VIDEO / MORE 

The Post’s View: Scientists refuse the scaremongering about GMOs (The Washington Post0

Susan Okie: Scientist argues vaccines, GMOs and cell phones are not threats to our well being (The Washington Post)

Fred Hiatt: Science that is hard to swallow (The Washington Post)

Michael Gerson: Corporate irresponsibility over GMOs (The Washington Post)

The Post’s View: Genetically modified crops should be part of Africa’s food future (The Washington Post)

Drought-tolerant corn offers Uganda’s farmers a lifeline (Christian Science Monitor)

Excerpt from The Christian Science Monitor:  Farmers who have watched entire fields of corn wither in recent droughts are starting to experiment with new strains designed to endure the stress of prolonged dry seasons. — Josephine Nansamba loves her bazooka.

As a corn farmer in Kabende, Uganda, she knows what it’s like to see her income dry up alongside her crops. But the last few years have been different, she says, thanks to a new variety of drought-tolerant corn known as bazooka. Today, despite drawn-out spells of drought that have claimed her neighbors’ crops, her bazooka is sturdy, tall, and a flourishing green.  

Ms. Nansamba’s bazooka is one of several newly developed, hybrid strains of corn sprouting in Ugandan fields. Farmers, researchers, and policymakers in this East African country are increasingly seeking new strains of staple crops in the wake of recent droughts and food shortages here and in the broader Sub Saharan region of Africa.

Climate research suggesting that such problems are likely to intensify has added a new level of urgency to the situation, prompting legislators in October to legalize the use of genetically modified crops after five years of politically charged debate.

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In the meantime, new varieties developed with traditional crossbreeding techniques, like Nansamba’s bazooka, offer a much-needed lifeline.

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In Uganda, farmers collectively produce nearly 3 million tons of corn annually. In 2016, much of that crop failed following an extended period of drought in April and May. By November of that year, drought-related crop failures had thrust some 1.3 million Ugandans into a food crisis.

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Godfrey Asea, director of NaCRRI, says the institute has already developed 10 drought-resilient varieties. With the passage of the National Biosafety Act in October, researchers expect to make additional headway using genetically modified organisms to create more productive, nutritious, and stress-tolerant strains.

Such boosts for Ugandan farmers would likely resonate far beyond the nation’s borders. In addition to exporting corn to Kenya and South Sudan, Uganda also sells to the World Food Programme, which feeds millions of refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda.   READ MORE