ABSTRACT
Researchers have put forward agricultural biotechnology, that is “any technique that uses living organisms or substances from these organisms to make or modify a product” [1] (p. 8), as a tool for increasing food production, while, at the same time, making agriculture more sustainable from an environmental point of view [2]. Research suggests that genetic engineering can be used to develop crop varieties that cope better with drought and salinity [3,4]; are more disease resistant [5,6]; and use nutrients more efficiently. These features are particularly desirable in a changing climate where the population grows and competition over arable land increases. However, agricultural biotechnology is a controversial topic, and
not everyone is convinced that the net benefits of genetically-modified (GM) varieties will be positive overall. Critics point to the ecological and health risks involved and to the negative impacts of GM varieties on small-scale traditional farming, especially in the global South [7,8,9]. Thus, the current debate over agricultural biotechnology, especially GMOs (genetically-modified organisms), is framed in strongly dichotomous terms: biotechnology is considered either an important part of or a severe threat to the effort to create sustainable agricultural production systems.
