Principia, Inc.

Genetically modified food has caused so much concern. Much of that concern is justified.

Organic producers have responded to this and gone out of their way to avoid it.

However in order to address an emerging and apparently urgent need to produce adequate food in environment of constrained resources such as water and arable and, and the significant environmental impact all agriculture, perhaps a middle ground is needed.
Our organic producers have functioned in volunteer agriculture R&D role for 30 years. The contributions of organic farming to soil science, understanding of natural systems and application of this knowledge can not be over estimated. Conventional farming science has not made significant contributions since the 70s. For more about history of fertilizer, see
Fertilizer Technology Used Worldwide, But Few New Products Since 1970s .

This is where genetic engineering comes in. I predict there will be a convergence out of necessity between current organic practices and genetic engineering due to the power both of these technologies have to produce adequate food supply, while minimizing environmental and resource impact.

Perhaps a little perspective is needed. Humans have been modifying genes for 11,000+ years. The practice began at the dawn of agriculture. Techniques have included cross breeding and hybridizing, and radiation to force mutations. The key difference is that we now can modify at the specific gene level and transfer genes from species to species. We now have a tweezer to replace a history of hammers.

Concerns raised about genetically modified foods are justified. The big players in this business have a very poor and well deserved reputation. These companies introduced and broadly deployed genetically engineering foods with minimal regard for risk. Genetic modification applied to solve problems that are better solved other ways. My pet example of this is glyphosate resistant plants. Glyphosate is a powerful and useful herbicide that minimize environmental impact by dissipating quickly. We now have a population of food plants that are resistant to glyphosate. This approach strikes me as being as potentially dangerous as intentionally creating antibiotic resistant bacteria.

An Alternative to Genetic Engineering — Marker Assisted Selection (MAS)

A Kansas State University professor is challenging the assumption that genetically engineered plants are the  only way to produce food to address a growing population by proposing with alternative technique using Marker Assisted Selection (MAS).

Kansas State University — Feeding the World Without Genetic Engineering

The convergence of genetic modification and organic farming will require transparency (let the buyer decide), extensive testing and and management of risk combined with the understanding of natural systems and soil.

Garden Principia