Think the Earth

International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), an organization that examines the adoption and dissemination of genetically modified (GM) crops, has released the "Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008" on February 6. And on the 25th of the same month the ISAAA founder, Mr. Clive James came to Japan to describe the GM crop trends to the media.

ISAAA has identified the first 10 years since they were commercialized in 1996 as the first period, and the next 10 years starting from 2006 as the second period for the dissemination of GM crops. Mr. James forecasted that GM crops would rapidly expand in the second period. He said that by 2015 the number of countries cultivating GM crops will increase from 22 to 40, the number of producers increase from 10 million to over 20 million, and the acreage would double from 100 million hectares to 200 hectares.

Mr. James also highlighted that emerging countries such as the BRICs - China, India, and Brazil - and African nations especially have a keen interest in GM crops as a resolution to the food problems they face. He also mentioned how the Premier of the State Council of China , Wen Jaibao emphasized that "we have to rely heavily on big science and technology to resolve food problems."

United States had lead the way in GM technology in the past, but if GM crops should become more widespread in Asia and Africa, it would become more and more difficult to secure a stable supply of non genetically modified products in Japan.