Agricultural Biotech Companies May Be Pushed to Non-GMO Options

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By Jacob Maslow

gmo free cornThe whole concept of genetically modified organisms is a political hot potato. You don’t need me to remind you of this fact. Mention the word GMO in Europe and you have a debate in your hands. The same goes with most places in Asia. GMOs are increasingly becoming a great political bogeyman for local politicians to score cheap points with.

The sad reality behind GMOs is that the window of opportunity for many economists to adopt this technology willingly is closing fairly rapidly. Why? The amount of available land for agricultural purposes is quickly decreasing. Thanks to urbanization, more and more farmlands are being converted into subdivisions or for commercial and industrial uses. This has put a tremendous amount of strain on the remaining arable land for agricultural production.

It is only a matter of time until the world doesn’t have enough farmland to produce crops that a growing global population needs. This, of course, translates to famine and hunger. It doesn’t have to be this way if the actual crops being planted have amazing yields. Unfortunately, due to the big debate about GMOs, this is not panning out.

The good news is that this might push agricultural biotech companies to focus on non-GMO based efficiency-boosting technologies. We are talking about software-drive seed coating, software-driven tractor driving, and other methods. The net yield increase might start out small. But add it together, this might buy some time as the world resolves the GMO debate.

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