CIAO DATE: 12/02

Sustaining a Revolution: A Policy for Crop Engineering

Foreword

The United States and the European Union (EU) are edging ever closer to an outright trade dispute over genetically modified foods. Farmers in the United States and several other countries are devoting an increasing fraction of their fields to these crops because they are less costly to grow than conventional varieties. At the same time, however, many European governments have branded genetically modified foods unsafe for humans and dangerous to the environment — despite scientific analysis, though still incomplete, which strongly suggests that these fears are vastly overblown. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization prohibits governments — which rarely rely solely on scientists when making policy — from barring imports of novel food products without a sound scientific justification for their actions. What is to be done? Two highly respected authors — David G. Victor and C. Ford Runge — offer a long-term strategy of political and economic steps that is workable. If their plan or something like it is not followed, the next set of choices for Europeans and Americans will be far more drastic.

Their report is their own responsibility, but it was based on cogent and careful deliberations of a Council on Foreign Relations Study Group. That group was chaired by David L. Aaron, whose experience in business and government and tough-mindedness made him an ideal discussion leader. The Victor-Runge report argues that the dispute over access to the European food market must be seen in a larger context. It is an early skirmish in a revolution that is transforming agriculture. Genetic engineering is not the only important innovation in agriculture today: fertilizer, pesticides, and mechanization are still making significant contributions to the business of farming. But crop engineering opens avenues unavailable with traditional crop breeding techniques. In so doing, it promises to make agriculture more precise and productive.

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