Do not confuse natural plant breeding with splicing genes from dissimilar organisms (such as fish) into the plant’s DNA (hence the moniker Genetically Modified Organism).
I am very grateful for Mr. Borlaug’s work in natural plant husbandry. He should be applauded and honored.
What he did is not hacking together frankenplants like Monsanto and others are doing.
I really think the anti-GMO movement is one of the most dangerous movements in the world. Genetically modifying organisms such as plant life offers a technological solutions to serious problems such as human hunger. Modifying plants so they can grow in environmentally difficult regions can save human lives and we know this empirically and scientifically. Here is an excerpt from the link noted above describing Bourlag’s work:
“By the late 1940s, researchers knew they could induce huge yield gains in wheat by feeding the plants chemical fertilizer that supplied them with extra nitrogen, a shortage of which was the biggest constraint on plant growth. But the strategy had a severe limitation: beyond a certain level of fertilizer, the seed heads containing wheat grains would grow so large and heavy, the plant would fall over, ruining the crop.
In 1953, Dr. Borlaug began working with a wheat strain containing an unusual gene. It had the effect of shrinking the wheat plant, creating a stubby, compact variety. Yet crucially, the seed heads did not shrink, meaning a small plant could still produce a large amount of wheat.
Dr. Borlaug and his team transferred the gene into tropical wheats. When high fertilizer levels were applied to these new “semidwarf” plants, the results were nothing short of astonishing.”
The idea that Monsanto is some mega agent of hate and killing is plainly ridiculous and it makes me sad to see FR trafficking this nonsense. If the worst things alleged were true (higher cancer rates), it could never justify depriving the world of alternatives that can overcome the cultivation problems that exist around the world.
I really wish the anti GMO crowd would stop with this maddening demagoguery. I think it is more fair to accus the anti-GMO crowd of wanting people to starve to death than to accuse Monsanto of wanting people to have cancer and die.
That is my honest view reading both sides of this debate. You are certainly free to buy organic food and grow your own crops if you personally believe this dangerous nonsense but it makes me sad that people have to die for your insistence that GMOs be banned from the free market.