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This is true if not somewhat misleading. Most commercial GMO crops do not target yield but lessens the amount of effort required to maintain production. Similar
by Laforet 10y ago
This is true if not somewhat misleading. Most commercial GMO crops do not target yield but lessens the amount of effort required to maintain production. Similar yields are readily achievable by throwing manpower and tons of agrochemicals at it, however that is effectively a loss of productivity and just as bad for the environment.
Ultimately one can only fit so many plants of maize on a single acre. What is yet to come are GM crops that actually prove the efficiency of photosynthesis and carbon fixing by directly engineering cellular biochemistry, making them closer to the food factory mankind has been working towards for thousands of years.
- uuilly 10y agoYou're spot on. You could use human labor to control weeds very effectively. It would just be extremely expensive.
- evan_ 10y agoYou could never hope to use human labor to control pests, though- and certainly not blight.
- gwern 10y agoThe Academy report they link does consider the economics, and while the evidence is not super high quality, on net it does seem like the GMOs generally improve the economic situation: https://agbiotech.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/NAS-Genetically-Engineered-Crops-Full-Report.pdf https://agbiotech.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/NA... OP doesn't consider this anywhere that I can see.