Genetically Modified Organisms: A Threat for Food Security and Risk for Food Sovereignty and Survival

Abstract

After the first agricultural revolution ten thousand years ago, people have gradually increased the yield by crossing different varieties of crops. As a result of multiple adaptations five basic food crops have emerged: rice in Asia, wheat in the Fertile Crescent (originally from Ethiopia), maize and beans from Mesoamerica, and potatoes from South America that offers the nutritional base for 6.6 billion people. During the 21st century, agriculture will be confronted with great challenges. Due to population growth until 2050 more than nine billion people must be fed. Most of them will live in poor countries, still threatened with hunger (FAO 1999; 2000, 2008b). Most of these countries are also affected by global environmental changes (GEC), and they will face more floods and droughts, a decline in biodiversity, and in the fertility of soils. Due to a rapidly growing food demand due to biofuel and a gradually declining supply, additional land, water, and seeds for food purposes are needed (FAO/WHO 2003; FAO 2005; Ghosh/Jepson 2006).