Can Genetically Modified Crops Feed the World?

Humans have been genetically modifying crops for millenia the old-fashioned way—selective breeding. But new techniques that insert foreign genetic material, say bacterial genes to produce insecticide in a corn plant, have raised health and environmental concerns. And that has prompted European countries, most recently Germany, to ban genetically modified, or GM, crops.

Proponents argue that GM crops can help feed the world. And given ever increasing demands for food, animal feed, fiber and now even biofuels, the world needs all the help it can get.

Unfortunately, it looks like GM corn and soybeans won't help, after all.

A study from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that genetically engineered crops do not produce larger harvests. Crop yield increases in recent years have almost entirely been due to improved farming or traditional plant breeding, despite more than 3,000 field trials of GM crops.

Of course, farmers have typically planted, say, GM corn, because it can tolerate high doses of weed-killer. And the Biotechnology Industry Organization argues that GM crops can boost yields in developing countries where there are limited resources for pesticides.

But it appears that, to date, traditional plant breeding boosts crop yields better than genetic modification. Those old farmers were on to something.

轉基因農作物能給世界提供足夠多的糧食嗎？

人類以選擇性培育的傳統方式對農作物進行基因改良已經有幾千年歷史了。新的轉基因技術能把外界的基因物質，比如細菌基因植入到玉米中，從而產生殺蟲劑。這種方式引起了健康和環境方面的關注。這促使歐洲國家——最近主要是德國——禁止轉基因農作物（GM）。
 
支持者稱轉基因農作物能幫助解決世界糧食問題。考慮到世界對食物、動物飼料以及生物燃料日益增加的需求，這個世界需要所有它能得到的一切幫助。
 
不幸的是，好像轉基因的玉米和大豆根本就起不到作用。
 
來自“擔憂的科學家聯盟”（Union of Concerned Scientists）的一份研究表明，轉基因農作物不能獲得更高的產量。雖然對轉基因農作物進行了3000多次的室外試驗，但是近幾年農作物產量的提高大部分完全是歸因于改進的農業技術或者傳統的植物培育。

當然，農場主們也經常種植一些轉基因的農作物，比如玉米，因為這些農作物耐得住高劑量的除草劑。“生物科技工業組織” (Biotechnology Industry Organization)稱轉基因農作物在缺乏殺蟲劑的發展中國家能提高產量。

但是到目前為止，似乎傳統的植物培育技術比轉基因技術更能提高農作物產量。還是那些農場主老手們有解決問題的辦法。

Vocabulary:

Millennium: 千年，復數為Millennia
Breed: 繁殖
Insecticide: 殺蟲劑
Proponent: 支持者
Tolerate: 忍受
Boost: 提高
Pesticide: 殺蟲劑