Norman Borlaug was a great man but he died in 2009.
I have volunteered for the World Food Prize which honors scientific advances in growing more food.
Its very interesting to hear the scientists themselves talk; unfiltered.
New science including GMOs is absolutely essential to use.
I don't want to rationalize or make excuses, need to get better informed. Instinctively I don't see how the old way was the same as GMO techniques although both change at the cellular level. I wasn't aware that the old method of cross pollinating allowed genes from different organisms to be introduced. Plus there would be mutation of a plant's own genes. I can see that it could and did happen, just that most cross pollination was from same type of plant material.
I thought maybe our bread flour isn't GMO but I'm not sure any more.
On a slightly different but related topic, farmers who use dicambra should be careful because it is especially prone to drife, and there will likely be lawsuits on account of damage to neighboring crops. I don't think we use it nor do we hire crop dusting planes, but it can drift with the usual spraying.
It is essential why? To feed larger populations with shrinking land in quantity and quality? I can see how it would improve nutrition.