GMO's Get A Boost

GMO's Get A Boost

GMO's Get A Boost. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.

Genetically modified products got a boost at a House Ag panel hearing as lawmakers and witnesses took on GMO critics. Republicans and Democrats on the House Horticulture Subcommittee agreed genetically modified crops are key to feeding a global population that will hit 9-billion by 2050. Oregon Democrat Kurt Schrader.

SCHRADER: I find it somewhat ironic that those very people who seem most concerned about climate change seem to be against one of the major tools we can use to actually comeback some of the deleterious effects of current farming practices. There's less tillage needed with some of the biotechnology crops we have.

Less pesticide use and better nutritional value. Schrader complains requiring GMO labeling will only make consumers think there's a problem with GMO food. Cornell University Professor Dave Just.

JUST: Consumers tend to lump foods that are labeled as having been genetically engineered together with foods that are highly processed, infused with chemical preservatives and factory produced foods. Consumers associate GMO's primarily with some unquantifiable health risk similar to that posed by untested or poorly tested medicines or drugs.

But consumers are more accepting when told the reason for a genetic modification - chicken bred to resist disease, foods changed to boost nutrition - but more skeptical of crops modified to enhance productivity.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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