Can GM Foods rescue the planet? – the Only way GM food can come to our rescue

There’s a little problem with food production in the world that not many people want to talk about.  About half the world is being starved to death whilst we are seeing a spike in obesity due to over-consumption of food.

The strange thing about that issue is that both ends of the food consumption divide either die from preventable diseases or live lives of pain and suffering due to the complications caused by their diets.

And let’s not beat around the bush any longer.  People are eating themselves to death at a time when a great proportion of the planet still struggles to gain access to even the barest needs for sustenance.  The ‘starving’ are faced with a ‘sub-existence’ life – barely surviving.  Whilst at the other end of the scale, costs associated with diabetes, heart disease and vascular problems are draining Government funds away from more worthy causes because people are being gluttons.

Yep, Gluttons.

Now I’ll leave the supposed triggers for over-eating to the psychologists to explain, adding only that it is often touted that a lack of self esteem is often a trigger for food consumption.  So because people ‘feel bad’ about themselves, they shove their faces full of food.  Maybe if they want something to feel bad about they should spend six months living on the rations of a family who face death almost every day.  The key difference of course is choice.  Starving people have NO choice

But I digress

It is suggested that enough good food is thrown out in the US each month to feed most of Africa.  Australia also throws out a high percentage of perfectly good food.  So whilst we know that an increase in population is likely to drive an increasing need for more food production, we also know that right now we waste a good chunk of perfectly good food

In assessing the way we as a species behave it’d be an unlikely call to suggest that we’ll be changing our habits any time soon.  Gluttons will continue to shove food down their throats and the rest of us will throw out perfectly edible food whilst many of the planet without access to needed resources and support starve.  So that is not likely to change in a hurry.

At the same time, there is an ongoing debate between Genetically Modified foods (GM) and natural foods.  The debate hinges as much over fears of lack of bio-diversity as it does of a huge level of mistrust over large multinationals dictating what food can be grown by whom using what products.  And given the track record of multinationals in pursuing farmers whose crops have become infected by GM foods or who may have tried to by-pass the usual licensing procedures, those fears are more than justified.

But the food production problem is not going to go away.  The world is going to need to produce more food and the multinational GM makers want to make more money.  At the same time, large parts of the planet starve to death, whilst farmers using traditional means attempt to turn back to the more organic farming methods to avoid the pesticide and fertiliser pains of large scale farming.

And then there’s climate change with all the vagaries the planet is throwing at us.

So what to do, what to do.

Assuming that the gluttons on the planet won’t be changing their habits and will continue to seek solace by eating, that the rest of us will waste perfectly good food and assuming that there will be a continued backlash against GM food being grown in farms around the planet, and assuming that the GM companies will want to profit from their research and assuming that the world will still need more food, I’m of the opinion that GM food IS the answer to more food production.

Provided…

Provided that the production of those crops takes place inside enclosed environments and the key place for that to be done on a large enough scale to make a difference will be inside vertical farms.

Vertical farming sees whole office complexes (or purpose built buildings) turned into 24/7 farming locations.  Take a look at this website here at what Vertical Farming is all about

GM food can indeed save the planet from itself.  And if the Bayer and Monsantos of the world want so desperately to grow their crops, and if the world so desperately needs that food to be grown and if the bio-farmers are so keen for that not to happen in the field, then Vertical Farming of GM foods is what those multinationals will need to build.

There’s no more need for debate or for organisations like the the EU Health Commission to force EU Agriculture Ministers to accept or approve GM crops.  All that is required is for these GM Ag. Companies to build or create vertical farms where their GM food can grow in an enclosed space, on mass, to feed the starving masses.

Simple really