Fooling with Mother Nature.

• Author: Easterbrook, Gregg
• Position: Genetically modified foods - Brief Article - Column

Can genetically altered crops help feed the world?

YES Corn that is genetically modified to include a natural insecticide, cotton engineered to tolerate herbicides--if you've been reading about genetically altered crops, you may be asking yourself, "Why do we need this stuff?"

It's true that, so far, genetically modified crops have not led to such promised advances as big reductions in the need for agricultural chemicals. And while there is no evidence that such crops in the field have harmed human health or damaged the environment, planting them does risk unwanted ecological effects.

But the genetically altered crops in the news today are just the first manifestations of a new idea. Better versions are coming.

For example, the Rockefeller Foundation is sponsoring research on so-called golden rice, a crop designed to improve nutrition in the developing world. Breeders are using genetics to build into the rice forms of vitamin A that the body can absorb; vitamin A deficiency is a common problem in poor countries. A second phase of the project will increase the iron content in rice to combat anemia, which is common among women in underdeveloped countries.

Of course, the genetic engineering of crops must be carefully regulated. But it would be a mistake if the underwhelming results of the first generation of genetically altered crops led to laws or boycotts that blocked future generations. After all, it is the world's poorest people who have the most to lose.

--GREGG EASTERBROOK journalist and author Times Op-Ed page

NO With more than 800 million people suffering starvation in the world, any development...