Sunday, June 17, 2007

GM Food Debates Heats Up with Global Warming

clipped from www.treehugger.com
gmglobalwarming.jpg

If you think the pro-genetically-modified-foods camp is pushy now, just wait till global warming starts razing the planet's surface, creating even harsher environments for food crops.

"Trying to grow plants in Australian conditions, as in many countries around the world where the conditions are harsh, is challenging, and it is likely to get harder under the effects of climate change," said Mark Tester, a plant-genomics researcher at the University of Adelaide in Australia and an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow.

Tester, who is decidedly on the side of GM foods, is working to identify genes responsible for making some plants more tolerable to hostile environments, including those afflicted by drought, salinity, and frost. The next step: moving these genes into plants for commercial production through conventional breeding and genetic-modification techniques.

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