Giving Compass' Take:

• At Cornell Alliance for Science, they use the Database of Emerging Agricultural Learning to bring awareness of the positive impacts of GMO crop production. 

• How can donors understand the full scope of GMOs and the role they play in food security? 

• Read this piece on the opposition to GMOs. 

The campaign by consumer activists who questioned the health effects of GMO food, and the drumbeat of nations that imposed tough regulations and labeling rules, has had a marked effect. In some quarters, the GMO label has become radioactive. But with the effects of rapidly advancing climate change shifting how and where the world gets its food, those who oppose genetic modification may want to reconsider.

Sarah Davidson Evanega, director of the Cornell Alliance for Science, works to enhance global food security. Her organization tracks biotechnology available in the public sector on its Database of Emerging Agricultural Learning, which currently lists 169 crops. The most common GMO crops in the U.S. are corn, soybeans, and cotton, but the alliance’s database shows how wide-ranging genetic modification technology can actually be. For example, it lists drought tolerant rice in Colombia, high-protein sorghum in Kenya, and a pest resistant lemon in Mexico. The database lists the crops’ various stages of development — and how only 12 have been approved.

When GMOs don’t make their way onto the market, the people who get hurt the most are farmers and consumers in the developing world, she said. Like many pro-GMO advocates, she points to two popular examples with widespread, positive impact: disease-resistant papayas introduced in Hawaii in the 1990s, which essentially saved the crop from total decimation, and pest-resistant eggplant that allows Bangladeshi farmers to dramatically reduce or eliminate the use of costly, poisonous pesticides. The database, she said, represents more opportunities to replicate these kinds of successes.

Read the full article about how GMOs could be misunderstood by Deena Shanker at Bloomberg.