GMOs and Climate Change: The Unexpected Truth
Environment CoSep 19, 2023
Nobel Laureates Ask EU to Loosen Laws on GMOs
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The Facts
In a letter organized by the environmental nonprofit WePlanet and sent to EU lawmakers on Friday, over 1K leading scientists, including 34 Nobel prize winners, called on the EU to loosen restrictions on using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture.
This comes alongside a proposed EU law to relax restrictions on "new genomic techniques" (NGTs), which reportedly edit plants' genetic makeup without using the genetics of foreign species.
The Spin
Narrative A
As agriculture accounts for one-third of climate-warming emissions, it's paramount that we increase our use of GMOs. Through the use of GMOs — which is estimated by some to potentially reduce emissions by 7.5% in Europe — farmers can use less land, thus leaving more space for animals to roam or even to build solar panels to create more green energy. GMOs produce less and absorb more CO2, making it the perfect combination of agricultural productivity and climate protection.
Narrative B
GMOs are not the solution to climate change or ending world hunger, but rather for big industrial agriculture companies to kill pesticides and boost their profits. Regarding climate change, conventional farming — conducted by smaller, family-owned farms — has proven the true champion over droughts. If we want to reduce poverty and hunger while producing climate-friendly crop yields, we should invest more in smallholder farms and steer away from GMOs.
Nerd narrative
There's a 40% chance that more than 400M fatalities will occur if there's a 10% global agricultural shortfall by 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.