Biotechnology will ‘not help starving’

Press, 23 February 1987, Page 5

Biotechnology will ‘not help starving’

By

Chris Pash

Adelaide NZPA AAP Biotechnology, the genetic engineering of plants and animals to produce better food crops, will not be the saviour of the world’s starving millions. The annual conference of the Australian Agricultural Economics Society was told that the new technology would not resolve the paradox of food overproduction by developed countries while other nations faced famine. John Longworth, of Queensland University, said biotechnology could even make the situation worse unless there were political and social reforms. “The new biotechnology will be made available and will be adopted most rapidly where there is commercial incentive,” he said in a paper delivered to the conference.

“It may even increase world food surpluses but do little directly to help the subsistence farmers and herdsmen of Africa to feed their families.” Mr Longworth called biotechnology, which has found commercial _ uses only in the last five years, the “bio-revolution.” This revolution exhibited many, of the same features of the “green revolution” of the 1960 s which produced highyield grain crops. He said the “green revolution” had increased production and lowered food prices for workers, but had made Third World agriculture more capital-intensive and therefore more subject to financial risk. “The bio-revolution will build on the accomplishments of the ‘green revolution’,” he said. “Its effects, however, are likely to be more widespread in that potentially all plant and animal

production systems could be affected.” Much of the new biotechnology for agriculture was being developed 4>y private firms which wanted to market their discoveries to farmers for a profit. "The implications of biotechnology for agriculture, therefore, cannot simply be discussed in terms of the potential for increasing productivity or creating new products,” Mr Longworth said. “The coming bio-revolu-tion will cause an unprecedented upheaval in the economic, social and political structure of world agriculture. "The ultimate value of biotechnology to agriculture will depend largely on the capacity of Governments to develop policies to cope with these economic, social and political changes, Mr Longworth said.