An unlikely combo sat to discuss world food needs recently. Sitting on a panel organized by Google and featured on YouTube was Hugh Grant, CEO of Monsanto, and Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

Grant talked about doubling yields over the next 20 years, while Pollan noted that yields were not a "strength" of past or current biotech crops.

What the GMO crops are good at, he said, is allowing farmers to get bigger and take care of more land more conveniently. He challenged Monsanto to join the effort on terms that are ecologically and economically reasonable -- such as allowing farmers to save seed, which Pollan called critical to food security (Monsanto currently views seed saving as piracy).

'Producing enough food and getting it into the hands of people who need it, they're just two completely separate problems,' he said. And, too, 'yield of what?' -- He said he looks forward to Monsanto entering the realm of growing food people can eat, but their strength and history so far has been growing corn and soy as 'raw materials,' mostly animal feed.

An important conversation, to be sure. But it made me think of an NPR interview with Hugh Grant a few months ago where he discussed the benefits of transgenic crops to farmers and consumers everywhere. When asked, "Do you feed your children organic food?" Grant responded, "Of course."

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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