Credit: Brett Ryder
WITHOUT INNOVATION IN AGRICULTURE, the world will run out of food. That's because most of the best farming land is already under production, while human populations continue to grow.
Sticking to traditional farming techniques will eventually result in a situation where demand overwhelms supply. Biotechnology has the potential to address this problem.
It could improve the volume and quality of food, feed, fibre and biofuels; reduce agriculture's dependency on chemicals and fossil fuels; diminish over cultivation and erosion; and lower the cost of raw materials – all in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Agricultural biotechnology – better known as 'genetically modified' or GM food – has helped farms around the world boost productivity and grow crops in more ecologically healthy fields, while allowing more efficient use of resources.
This technology means that farmers spend less time preparing their paddocks, which in turn reduces greenhouse gas emissions, because they are not spending all day on a tractor or using agricultural machinery.
They also spend less time ploughing the fields and, in doing so, reduce the exposure of soil to wind and water erosion. Traditional farming allows rain to compact the soil and increases its oxygen content, so that organic matter oxidises away – which results in more compaction and nutrient loss.
A 2005 study by Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot, economists at agricultural advisors PG Economics in Britain, found that, in the first nine years after GM crops were allowed, global net farm income increased by A$35.5 billion.
At the same time, the environmental footprint associated with pesticide use was reduced by 14 per cent, with a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to taking nearly five million cars off the road for a year.
Between 1996 and 2004, pesticide use fell by an estimated 172 million kg, compared with the amount of pesticides that would have been required if only conventional crops had been cultivated. In 2004 alone that equated to some 40 million kg of pesticides.
