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Science & Innovation 9

recent years, that seems promise as a new and
to raise anxieties. Issues more efficient tool to
such as genetically do what agricultural
modified (GM) crops scientists had always
and foods and the use been doing: creating new
of agricultural chemicals crops and types of animals
are key examples of to feed a growing and
situations where the increasingly sophisticated
use of science in food public demanding cheap
production is particularly and convenient food.
complex.
As environmentalism became more popular,
The development of recombinant DNA and more recently with our understanding of
techniques and their application to food plants climate change, GM was seen as fitting with ideas of
in the 1970s is arguably the most important producing less with more and was aligned with the
scientific intervention in the food system in sustainable intensification of agriculture as a way to
recent years, and also the most contested. It may both reduce the contribution of agriculture to climate
be less important than the “green revolution” change and adapt to its effects. The emerging food
in terms of actual impacts on agricultural security issue soon became a dominant part of pro-
productivity, but the ability to alter the DNA of GM discourse, in particular the idea that GM
plants and animals in new ways certainly led was needed in order to be able to feed the
to increased government and public interest in projected 2050 population of 9 billion people.
agriculture and food production. Overall rates of adoption of GM crops have
been more rapid in developing nations than in
In its early years, particularly from the scientists’ developed nations overall, since GM is claimed
point of view, GM technology showed great to deliver tangible social benefits to small-scale

The Australian Farmer • Issue 2017