Can biotechnology really rise to the challenge of global hunger?
Hey Zach, great question. I think that there are a lot of factors to consider in responding to this. Over the past 40+ years there have been incredible advances in technology that have helped to provide some great improvements in many crops. There are rice varities (and I mention rice because it is so important to much of the world population) that provide much better yields and better disease resistance. With some qualifications, much the same could be said for a wide variety of crops that are important. The risks come with reducing the number of varieties and becoming too dependant on only those, trusting technology to be able to develop or make changes should a crop become susceptible to some insect, virus or bacteria, as has often happened over the years. We need to have some balance for reliance on high productivity crops, vs variety that can remain resistant to diseases. Somewhat related, the issue of farming practices. There is a fair amount of evidence that Western techniques a
