Borlaug Featured at London Conference

May 15, 2001

A major international biotechnology conference will be held in London May 31-June 1 and will feature Norman E. Borlaug, agronomist and Nobel laureate. Borlaug says he is among the majority of agricultural scientists who believes there are "great potential benefits" coming from biotechnology in coming decades.

In an abstract of his address to the conference, Borlaug says, "The more pertinent question today is whether scientists will be allowed to harness the power of recombinant DNA and whether the world's farmers and ranchers will be permitted access to the new agricultural biotechnologies so that they can be brought to fruition in future food, feed, fiber, and livestock production systems."

Titled "Seeds of Opportunity," the conference is sponsored by the School of Oriental and African Studies and Queen Mary College, both part of the University of London, the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and the U.S. Embassy. A news release on the entire conference is on the Internet at http://www.seedsofopportunity.com/press_release.htm#9_Feb.

Despite the successes of the Green Revolution, says Borlaug, the battle to ensure food security for hundreds of millions of miserably poor people "is far from won." He continues, "Mushrooming populations, changing demographics, inadequate poverty-reduction programs, and environmental abuses have all taken their toll on world agriculture. Indeed, enormous challenges lie ahead to ensure that the projected world population of the 8.3 billion people in 2025 is adequately and equitably fed, and in environmentally sustainable ways."

Over the last 20 years, biotechnology based upon recombinant DNA has developed "invaluable new scientific methodologies and products for food and agriculture," he adds. Recombinant DNA methods have enabled breeders to select and transfer single genes, not only reducing the time needed in conventional breeding to eliminate undesirable genes but also allowing breeders access to useful genes from other distant species.

"So far, agricultural biotechnology has mainly conferred producer-oriented benefits, such as resistance to pests, diseases, and herbicides. But many consumer-oriented benefits, such as improved nutritional and other health-related characteristics, are likely to be realized over the next 10 to 20 years," according to Borlaug.

Moreover, during the past 40 years, "sweeping changes have occurred in food production in the Third World," says Borlaug. In developing Asia alone, the adoption by farmers of modern varieties and improved crop management practices has allowed rice and wheat production to increase from 127 million to 762 million tons from 1961 to 2000, a period in which population grew from 1.6 to 3.5 billion people.

A copy of Borlaug's abstract is on the Internet at http://www.seedsofopportunity.com/borlaug_abstract.htm.