Beyond the labeling debate: biotech crops contribute to sustainable agriculture

GMO labeling has been the topic of a lot of discussion in the last while with a series of companies announcing their intentions to label foods containing genetically modified ingredients. And while most of this conversation is being driven out of the U.S., there is an inevitable spill into Canada.

Putting differences of opinion on whether genetically modified foods should be labeled or not aside, there’s something being overlooked in the labeling debate: biotech crops are part of the toolbox that has made farming more sustainable than ever before. As some brands try to portray a move away from GMOs as a move towards sustainable agriculture, nothing could be further from the truth.

Thanks in part to farmers’ use of tools like pesticides and biotech crops, farmers produce more per acre than at any other time in history. This is not only good for the farmer, it’s good for the environment and it’s good for Canadians.

The world population is growing and we need to continue to produce more food to meet rising demands. Today’s farmers are stepping up to the challenge in a big way, growing more food on existing farmland and leaving valuable wildlife habitat untouched.

In fact, without pesticides and biotech crops we’d need to turn 35 million more acres into farmland to produce what we do today in Canada – that’s the total land area of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. combined. That’s a significant amount of forest, native grasslands and wetlands that are safeguarded, which is a boon for biodiversity in this country.

Biotech crops have also been one of the innovations that have helped farmers adopt conservation tillage practices. Herbicide-resistant crops brought in a new era of weed control, allowing farmers to apply pesticides to eliminate weeds rather than relying on the old practice of plowing the soil, known as tillage, which is extremely hard on the soil. By reducing tillage, farmers have been able to improve the health of their soil, something that is fundamental to any sustainable agricultural system.

Pesticides and biotech crops have allowed farmers to work more efficiently using fewer resources. They have been able to limit the number of times they pass over their fields with tractors, which saves huge amounts of diesel fuel from being burned and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by almost 30 million tonnes a year.

But of course none of this matters if these tools aren’t safe. Fortunately, Canada’s world-class regulatory system ensures all new biotech crops are just as safe as the non-GM varieties. And there are probably few other foods in the history of humankind that have a track record of safety as good GMOs. There have been trillions of meals consumed containing GM ingredients over the last two decades without a single credible case of harm.

So, while it might be a surprise to some, GMOs actually have a good green story to tell. They are part of a sustainable agricultural system that is well positioned to feed the world while safeguarding the environment for future generations. While we all debate whether GMOs should be labeled, we shouldn’t lose sight of the incredible sustainability story behind them.

Ted Menzies,
President and CEO, CropLife Canada