I think youโre right that the human-health-via-nutrition case for GMOs is pretty weak. Advocating for non-GMO food fortification (e.g. the work of the Food Fortification Initiative, who have been written up by GiveWell but are not a top charity) seems more tractable than pushing for GMOs.
Your โOther use cases of GMOsโ section focuses on addressing other nutritional deficits. My (not deeply researched) sense is that the major benefits of agricultural GMOs are probably more about reduced famine via:
* ability to survive climate extremes * resistance to pest insects (cf. Bt Binjal, which is approved in Bangladesh) * resistance to plant diseases (e.g. work to make plantains resistance to banana streak virus)
There also seem to be some GMOs that allow for a reduction of pesticide use (e.g. GM cotton in China) which I (non-confidently) suspect has human and environmental health benefits. Do you have any thoughts on how advocacy for these uses of GMOs stacks up against the nutritional case?
Thanks. I agree with all of that. My section was supposed to be just one of many examples of the wonders that GMOs can produce. Iโll clarify the text to state this more clearly :)
I think youโre right that the human-health-via-nutrition case for GMOs is pretty weak. Advocating for non-GMO food fortification (e.g. the work of the Food Fortification Initiative, who have been written up by GiveWell but are not a top charity) seems more tractable than pushing for GMOs.
Your โOther use cases of GMOsโ section focuses on addressing other nutritional deficits. My (not deeply researched) sense is that the major benefits of agricultural GMOs are probably more about reduced famine via:
* ability to survive climate extremes
* resistance to pest insects (cf. Bt Binjal, which is approved in Bangladesh)
* resistance to plant diseases (e.g. work to make plantains resistance to banana streak virus)
There also seem to be some GMOs that allow for a reduction of pesticide use (e.g. GM cotton in China) which I (non-confidently) suspect has human and environmental health benefits. Do you have any thoughts on how advocacy for these uses of GMOs stacks up against the nutritional case?
Thanks. I agree with all of that. My section was supposed to be just one of many examples of the wonders that GMOs can produce. Iโll clarify the text to state this more clearly :)