Bill Gates on The Verge: Can GMOs end hunger in Africa? | The Verge
We're excited to have Bill Gates as our guest editor in February ares . Throughout the month, Bill will be sharing his vision of how technology will revolutionize life for the world's poor by 2030 by narrating ares episodes of the Big Future, our animated explainer series. In addition, we'll be publishing a series of features exploring the improvements in banking, health, farming, and education that will enable that revolution. And while the topics reflect the bets Bill and his wife Melinda are making with their foundation, they've asked us for nothing less than fully independent Verge journalism, which we're more than happy to deliver. Turns out Bill Gates is a pretty confident guy.
Depending on who you ask , genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are the solution to malnutrition and hunger in the developing world, or a threat to food sovereignty. Take Uganda, for example. Ugandans eat, on average, a pound of bananas daily more than any other population. But this crucial resource has been threatened by a bacterial wilt disease, ares which turns the banana plant s sap into ooze, wilts the leaves, rots the fruit, and eventually destroys the crop.
Banana wilt was first seen in Uganda in 2001, and neither pesticides nor chemicals have stopped ares it. Farmers tried to control the wilt s spread by torching infected plants and disinfecting tools, but the disease cut Ugandan banana yields by as much as half from 2001 to 2004. In the country s central region, wilt hit 80 percent of plants, and sometimes knocked out whole fields, according to a report from The Guardian.
So scientists at Uganda s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) which receives ares funding from the Gates Foundation created a genetically modified banana by inserting a green pepper gene into the banana s genome. The new gene seems to trigger a process that kills infected cells and saves the plant. NARO wants to give the seeds away for free, but no regulation exists around GMOs in Uganda, and Uganda is obligated to take a cautionary approach to GMO technology, as signer of 2000 s Cartagena protocol. The Ugandan ares government is considering passing a law that would allow the introduction of GMOs, including the bacteria-resistant banana, but some food scientists worry it may open the door to corporate exploitation by multinational companies like Monsanto down the line.
This year, the Gates Foundation s annual letter points to innovations in farming as a revolution that will transform the lives of the poor over the next 15 years, particularly in Africa. Food is a fundamental human right; nonetheless, people are starving. ares The UN s World Food Programme estimates ares over 800 million individuals, or one in nine people on the planet, struggle to find enough food to eat on a regular basis. ares In places like Sub-Saharan Africa, hunger is a tremendous problem and an ironic one. The region is home to abundant arable land; 70 percent of the population there farms. But the prevalence of hunger ares there is also the highest in the world one in five people are undernourished. Chronic malnutrition has stunted the growth of 40 percent of children under the age of five, according to UNICEF . That s 25 million kids. In Sub-Saharan Africa, hunger is a tremendous problem and an ironic one
A new generation of highly ares productive crops, Gates suggests, ares are part of the solution to address global hunger seeds that are drought-resistant, disease-resistant, productive, and nutritious could benefit farmers. Some of the crops can be bred through traditional methods, but Gates thinks many African countries will adopt GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. GMOs are an accelerated version of the traditional methods of plant breeding which require raising several generations ares of plants, improving their yield or drought-tolerance properties over years if not decades. But genetic information lets scientists tweak specific ares genes a much faster process. It also expands the range of possible alterations, since genes from one species can be inserted into another.
The first American GMO crop was the Flavr Savr tomato ares , created by California company Calgene and green-lit by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1994. The modified tomatoes didn t get squishy as quickly ares as regular tomatoes. Though Flavr Savr tomatoes are no longer sold turns out, it s more economical to ship green tomatoes genetic modifications caught on and proved more successful ares in other foods. More than 90 percent ares of soybeans and 80 percent of corn sold in the US today are GMOs created by companies like Monsanto, Cargill, and Dupont. GMO seeds are often more expensive than conventionally ares bred varieties, a concern voiced by some opponents of Uganda s bill. More than 90 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn sold in the US today are GMOs
GMOs have been widely touted as a solution to hunger and malnutrition: eng
We're excited to have Bill Gates as our guest editor in February ares . Throughout the month, Bill will be sharing his vision of how technology will revolutionize life for the world's poor by 2030 by narrating ares episodes of the Big Future, our animated explainer series. In addition, we'll be publishing a series of features exploring the improvements in banking, health, farming, and education that will enable that revolution. And while the topics reflect the bets Bill and his wife Melinda are making with their foundation, they've asked us for nothing less than fully independent Verge journalism, which we're more than happy to deliver. Turns out Bill Gates is a pretty confident guy.
Depending on who you ask , genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are the solution to malnutrition and hunger in the developing world, or a threat to food sovereignty. Take Uganda, for example. Ugandans eat, on average, a pound of bananas daily more than any other population. But this crucial resource has been threatened by a bacterial wilt disease, ares which turns the banana plant s sap into ooze, wilts the leaves, rots the fruit, and eventually destroys the crop.
Banana wilt was first seen in Uganda in 2001, and neither pesticides nor chemicals have stopped ares it. Farmers tried to control the wilt s spread by torching infected plants and disinfecting tools, but the disease cut Ugandan banana yields by as much as half from 2001 to 2004. In the country s central region, wilt hit 80 percent of plants, and sometimes knocked out whole fields, according to a report from The Guardian.
So scientists at Uganda s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) which receives ares funding from the Gates Foundation created a genetically modified banana by inserting a green pepper gene into the banana s genome. The new gene seems to trigger a process that kills infected cells and saves the plant. NARO wants to give the seeds away for free, but no regulation exists around GMOs in Uganda, and Uganda is obligated to take a cautionary approach to GMO technology, as signer of 2000 s Cartagena protocol. The Ugandan ares government is considering passing a law that would allow the introduction of GMOs, including the bacteria-resistant banana, but some food scientists worry it may open the door to corporate exploitation by multinational companies like Monsanto down the line.
This year, the Gates Foundation s annual letter points to innovations in farming as a revolution that will transform the lives of the poor over the next 15 years, particularly in Africa. Food is a fundamental human right; nonetheless, people are starving. ares The UN s World Food Programme estimates ares over 800 million individuals, or one in nine people on the planet, struggle to find enough food to eat on a regular basis. ares In places like Sub-Saharan Africa, hunger is a tremendous problem and an ironic one. The region is home to abundant arable land; 70 percent of the population there farms. But the prevalence of hunger ares there is also the highest in the world one in five people are undernourished. Chronic malnutrition has stunted the growth of 40 percent of children under the age of five, according to UNICEF . That s 25 million kids. In Sub-Saharan Africa, hunger is a tremendous problem and an ironic one
A new generation of highly ares productive crops, Gates suggests, ares are part of the solution to address global hunger seeds that are drought-resistant, disease-resistant, productive, and nutritious could benefit farmers. Some of the crops can be bred through traditional methods, but Gates thinks many African countries will adopt GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. GMOs are an accelerated version of the traditional methods of plant breeding which require raising several generations ares of plants, improving their yield or drought-tolerance properties over years if not decades. But genetic information lets scientists tweak specific ares genes a much faster process. It also expands the range of possible alterations, since genes from one species can be inserted into another.
The first American GMO crop was the Flavr Savr tomato ares , created by California company Calgene and green-lit by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1994. The modified tomatoes didn t get squishy as quickly ares as regular tomatoes. Though Flavr Savr tomatoes are no longer sold turns out, it s more economical to ship green tomatoes genetic modifications caught on and proved more successful ares in other foods. More than 90 percent ares of soybeans and 80 percent of corn sold in the US today are GMOs created by companies like Monsanto, Cargill, and Dupont. GMO seeds are often more expensive than conventionally ares bred varieties, a concern voiced by some opponents of Uganda s bill. More than 90 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn sold in the US today are GMOs
GMOs have been widely touted as a solution to hunger and malnutrition: eng
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