The World Bank’s 2010 World Development Report highlights agricultural biotechnology’s contributions to international development and climate change mitigation. Excerpts from the report showcasing biotechnology’s benefits include:
“Biotechnology could provide a transformational approach to addressing the tradeoffs between land and water stress and agricultural productivity, because it could improve crop productivity, increase crop adaptation to climatic stresses such as drought and heat, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, reduce pesticide and herbicide applications.” (p. 166)
“For example, advances in biotechnology offer potential for adapting to climate-related events (droughts, heat waves, pests, and diseases) affecting agriculture and forestry.” (p. 303)
“Agriculture and health depend on biotechnology to develop new technologies” (p. 315)
The entire report can be read here.
The world lost an important scientist and humanitarian over the weekend. Dr. Norman Borlaug, an acclaimed scientist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and founder of the Green Revolution is remembered not only for his scientific gifts in helping to increase food yields for hunger alleviation but also for mentoring young scientists.
Dr. Borlaug is remembered fondly by the media as a visionary and hero to countless people across the world.
Tributes to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug from around the world
World Food Day Prize
The Father Of the Green Revolution
Washington Post - Joe Holley, J.Y. Smith
“More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world,” the Nobel committee said in honoring him.
Celebrating the Life of a Scientist that “Fed the World”
Sustainablog
It is likely that he saved more human lives than any other person in history. He did it by developing far more productive wheat than had ever been grown.
Norman Borlaug, Plant Scientist Who Fought Famine, Dies at 95
The New York Times – Justin Gillis
Norman E. Borlaug, the plant scientist who did more than anyone else in the 20th century to teach the world to feed itself and whose work was credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday night. He was 95 and lived in Dallas.
Norman Borlaug ‘helped provide bread for a hungry world’
Discovery - The Intersection
Dr. Pamela Ronald, University of California-Davis Professor and Raoul Adamchak, Market Garden Coordinator at the UC Davis Student Farm, are featured on Fora.tv. This video about the marriage of two strange bedfellows, genetic engineering and organic farming, elucidates the complementary nature of agricultural biotechnology and organic farming. Dr. Ronald is a member of our Experts List.
Karl Haro von Mogel – a Ph.D. student in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics at UW-Madison and avid blogger on Biofortified – has submitted an excellent entry in the Ashoka Changemakers “GMO Risk or Rescue? Helping Consumers Decide” competition.
Please click here to read his entry and submit your vote… the deadline is 4 p.m. Eastern on Sept 16th!
“Competition Summary” from www.changemakers.com:
“The debate over the future of our food supply is heating up. Everyone is weighing in on the moral, environmental, and nutritional effects that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) will have on our society, but how do we really know what’s on our plate?
How can we help consumers make better, more informed choices? Submit your entry by September 9, 2009, for the opportunity to win a conversation with Michael Pollan, best-selling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma!
GMOs: What do you think? Join the debate here!”
