Barry: Since Nature jumbles genes constantly, there should be no prohibition to our adding our contribution via sound science. My only hesitation over GMO is that corporations might reduce basic foods to tasteless meals! Making the flavor better and the visuals more pleasing is a BIG OK with me!

Hi Barry,

I think this is a very important topic. I agree that genetic engineering of food crops can produce a whole range of positive properties, as you just mentioned, and this is definitely the direction of research on plant/food crops. But I think we also need to be conscious of the potential long term consequences. Just one example, the trait of less attractive to parasites might lead to selection for those parasites that are not sensitive to that trait, and then over time shift the ecological balance of the parasites population. This would apply to other traits as well.

Barry: Since Nature jumbles genes constantly, there should be no prohibition to our adding our contribution via sound science. My only hesitation over GMO is that corporations might reduce basic foods to tasteless meals! Making the flavor better and the visuals more pleasing is a BIG OK with me!

With around seven billion population to feed, there is already immense pressure on limited resources for production of more food. I think there is a need to promote genetically engineered crops in order to increase food security in developing nation.

This an important question with not so obvious answers.

From my perspective, from the well-known phenomenon that physical systems such as plants adapt to changing circumstances, it seems that a good response to climate change would be to let plant life takes its course in adapting itself to the changing environment.

Letting chemical companies meddle with plant life is asking for trouble. This is so, since these companies tend be in a hurry. In the short term, genetic engineering may seem beneficial. However, the serious question to ask here is

What are the long terms effects of genetic engineering on crops, especially as a source of food?

Poor People in India, Banladesh and Africa eat rice as staple food and I know that rice and wheat are C3 plants and Rice lacks vitamin A , poor people who do not have other source of nutrition are susceptible to Vitamin A deficiency and it cause blindness in 250,000 to 500,000 children annually and many children dies due to Vitamin A deficiency. there are efforts to provide Golden rice containing vitamin A to Poor's but it has to be at faster pace and by transferring genes from C4 and CAM into Rice and wheat which are C3 plants by such gene transfer it may be possible to grow at high temperature and drought like conditions and thus it may mitigate climate change.

Plant genetic engineering, climate change and food security

Genetic engineering provides innovative methods for modern plant breeding to adapt crops to agricultural systems facing new challenges brought by the changing climate. New breeding methods, relying on genetic engineering, can accelerate the pace of improving crops, or be more precise for transferring desired genes into plant germplasm.

https://ccafs.cgiar.org/publications/plant-genetic-engineering-climate-change-and-food-security#.W4K8wc4zbIU

Rice is a water guzzling plant. Climate change--that is warming whatever its cause--sea level rise and anthropogenic landscape changes are already stressing rice production [Vietnam is a good example as well as Bangladesh]. Whatever genetic manipulation can be done to improve the growing characteristics of rice in mono-cultural stands is an absolute NECESSITY nowadays. Literally, we have not other choice!

According to popular, and utterly corrupt, news media our Earth is presently being incinerated by vegetation fires worldwide in scope. Professional reporters coax a truly false impression that global conflagrations are entirely human-caused. But, as we know, it is a usual event, done in part by humans to clear landscapes and promote soil fertility in advance of agriculture! (By the way, birds in Australia have been documented to deliberately spread wildfires to increase their chances of capturing and killing food prey!) At least rice does not burn even if land clearance and shaping is a necessity of its farming. Attached are 2 interesting reports which I hope others will enjoy.

I see embracing genetically modified foods as a positive thing, especially when it comes to produce vulnerable to the absorption of toxic metal compounds. Such as the absorption of arsenic in grain based plants. However, focusing on GE as a means to ease living in an era of major climate change is like opening the door to a new labyrinth while standing within a larger labyrinth called climate change. And that's why if any effort is to be made in this field, I see the modern floods as a clear sign that it should be made in the direction of a collective effort to take care of mother nature. It is really self-deception when we think that altering the natural stages of plant development isn't going to have influence on surrounding creatures. At the end of the day, everything is connected and neglecting a single unit is like neglecting the whole.