“It’s coexistence or no existence,” said the philosopher Bertrand Russell many years ago.
He was talking about war and peace in the nuclear age. But he might as well have been addressing one of the thorniest questions in U.S. agriculture today: the concern that biotech and organic crops can’t thrive side by side.
The simple fact is that they already do. Biotech foods are flourishing, as growing numbers of farmers decide that genetically enhanced corn, soybeans, cotton, and other crops are right for them. At the same time, organic products represent a booming sector of the food industry. Each one is a great American success story.
Yet there are points of conflict, and the most significant is probably the question of biotech “pollution”--the fear that genetically enhanced crops will somehow “contaminate” organic fields.
There are several problems with this kind of thinking, and the first is the notion that biotech enhanced foods are somehow less “pure” than organic foods. No staple crop occurs in what may be called its natural state--everything we eat is the product of genetic manipulation. It might be an organic cucumber, a conventionally produced ear of sweet corn or a biotech papaya that’s been built to resist disease; all are the result of centuries of crossbreeding and genetic improvement. All are perfectly healthy and delicious--and better than what came before.
Moreover, there’s no reason why biotech and organic crops can’t both find a place at the table, especially when consumers are expressing preferences for each.
To be sure, coexistence comes with complications. Even families occasionally have some conflict. Some organic farmers worry about neighboring fields of biotech crops spreading pollen onto their organic crops. The concern actually travels both ways: Biotech farmers could just as easily say organic fields threaten their own harvests because of their failure to control weeds effectively.
There’s a simple answer to both of these problems: paying careful attention to the field location and planting schedule. Nobody is more concerned about unknown pollen drifting into their fields than breeders developing new and improved plants. They protect their crops rigorously, physically separating them from perceived threats and growing barriers of trees as additional safeguards. No system is foolproof, but this one has worked successfully for decades.
Farmers understand the importance of crop integrity too. That’s why we support a strong, science and common-sense based regulatory framework. Producer involvement with the U.S. regulatory system in the design and implementation of appropriate standards and rules will help ensure the integrity of the crops they produce whether they are organic or biotech enhanced.
It’s worth noting that no organic farmer has lost his certification, as established under USDA rules, because the wind has blown a few seeds or pollen from biotech fields onto his own plot. It simply hasn’t happened--ever. It is also worth noting that of the four crops that have biotech varieties in the U.S. – corn, soybeans, cotton and canola – organic varieties of these crops are grown on less than 1% of the acres planted to these crops.
In the end, we need to recognize that we live in a market economy and the ultimate arbiters will be consumers. They’re the ones who continue to demand a diversity of foods any time of year at the lowest price possible – including those that are willing to pay a premium for organically produced food.
Before long, many of today’s organic consumers are going to say, “Make mine biotech.” That’s because up to now, the benefits of biotech enhanced crops have been most visible to the producers who have seen their yields increase and the environmental friendly safeguards go up. These advantages no doubt save consumers an awful lot of money, though most of them don’t realize it when they’re zipping through grocery stores and filling their shopping baskets.
In the near future, however, the benefits of biotechnology will be apparent to all as heart-healthy soybeans and other products begin to transform the marketplace. The foods will be healthier than many otherwise comparable alternatives--and people will even pay a premium for them, just as they do now for organic food.
One thing is certain: Biotech and organic foods have coexisted in the past, they’re coexisting now, and they’ll coexist in the future. The only other choice is mutually assured destruction.
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“It’s coexistence or no existence,” said the philosopher Bertrand Russell many years ago.
