I’m sure you heard about the debate, and you probably have an opinion about it.  Should genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, be part of our food supply?  Have you ever refused to buy a product because it was labeled “Partially produced with genetic engineering”?  What exactly does GM mean?  What is the benefit of GMOs in the developing world?

Similar to the climate change debate or the anti-vax movement, there is a lot of misinformation out there about GMOs.  So let’s get the facts: are GMOs safe?  What products that you buy contain GMOs?  And how can GMOs change how we do agriculture?

Today we talk to Dr. Sarah Evanega, the Director of the Alliance for Science, based at Cornell University. We discuss how a GM crop is created, if they are safe, and how GMOs help us with problems in our changing world, such as climate change, sustainability, and helping us feed the near ten billion people that the world is projected to have in 2050.  Sarah also talks about how  GMOs in the developing world are viewed.  There, agriculture is much more integrated with the average person’s life.  We discuss how GMOs are helping people in these areas of the world overcome hunger, drought, the effects of climate change, and diseases.  Among these are farmers such as Md. Milon Mia, an eggplant farmer in Bangladesh, or Selma Njukwage, who farms maize in Tanzania.

You can follow Sarah at @sarah_evanega and the Alliance for Science at @scienceally.

Md. Milon Mia discusses his crop of genetically engineered eggplant.

The post Ep 52: To GM or not to GM: GMOs in a Changing World – with guest Dr. Sarah Evanega appeared first on Elizabeth Fernandez.