If everybody switched to organic farming, we couldn't support the earth's current population - maybe half. Nina Fedoroff More Quotes by Nina Fedoroff More Quotes From Nina Fedoroff We are sliding back into a dark era, and there seems little we can do about it. I am profoundly depressed at just how difficult it has become merely to get a realistic conversation started on issues such as climate change or genetically modified organisms. Nina Fedoroff issues climate dark We wouldn't think of going to our doctor and saying 'Treat me the way doctors treated people in the 19th Century', and yet that's what we're demanding in food production. Nina Fedoroff doctors people thinking We've gotten so good at growing food that we've gone, in a few generations, from nearly half of Americans living on farms to 2 percent. We no longer think about how the wonderful things in the grocery store got there, and we'd like to go back to what we think is a more natural way. Nina Fedoroff generations gone thinking We have six-and-a-half-billion people on the planet, going rapidly towards seven. We're going to need a lot of inventiveness about how we use water and grow crops. Nina Fedoroff water people needs Myths about the dire effects of genetically modified foods on health and the environment abound, but they have not held up to scientific scrutiny. And, although many concerns have been expressed about the potential for unexpected consequences, the unexpected effects that have been observed so far have been benign. Nina Fedoroff benign unexpected environment New molecular methods that add or modify genes can protect plants from diseases and pests and improve crops in ways that are both more environmentally benign and beyond the capability of older methods. Nina Fedoroff pests disease add Weeds do become resistant to herbicides, and it needs to be managed with multiple herbicides. Nina Fedoroff multiple weed needs There are probably already too many people on the planet. Nina Fedoroff global-warming climate-change people The influence of a science adviser is only as good as ears open to that science advice. Nina Fedoroff influence ears advice For me science is not different from art, except in the one small, crucial detail that experiments speak their own truths, not ours. Nina Fedoroff details different art India has the opportunity to be a leader in genetic engineering, It has institutions that no other country has. Nina Fedoroff engineering opportunity country We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can't support many more people. Nina Fedoroff support growth people The more we can grow on already cultivated land, the better. Nina Fedoroff grows land We have domesticated crops over a very long period of time, like tens of thousands of years. And crops get - seeds get carried. Sometimes, if they're very small seeds, they get scattered off trucks. Pollen travels. Nina Fedoroff sometimes long years If there are more and more environmental refugees, they are going to end up on your doorstep too. Nina Fedoroff refugee environmental ends There's almost no food that isn't genetically modified. Genetic modification is the basis of all evolution. Things change because our planet is subjected to a lot of radiation, which causes DNA damage, which gets repaired, but results in mutations, which create a ready mixture of plants that people can choose from to improve agriculture. Nina Fedoroff agriculture dna people One of the really remarkably beneficial aspects of genetic engineering is that much of the previous methodology for controlling pests and so forth is through chemicals that affect a very broad spectrum of insects, for example, or fungicides that control fungi. Nina Fedoroff engineering pests example Civilization depends on our expanding ability to produce food efficiently, which has markedly accelerated thanks to science and technology. Nina Fedoroff thanks technology civilization I don't know how you overcome the dearth of scientists in the government positions. Nina Fedoroff scientist government overcoming Jumping genes are fundamental because they're agents of change. Everybody knows that organisms evolve. What makes them evolve is that their genes are dynamic and in motion. A familiar example is the stripe-y corn - called Indian corn - that you buy in the fall. Nina Fedoroff stripes jumping fall
