Green Revolution Redux | MIT Technology Review

Beyond reducing time to market, modern plant engineering efforts have shifted from yield per plant – a hallmark of the green revolution – to yield per acre. Slotkin quotes corn: “By removing what is called shade avoidance and increasing the angle of the leaves, you can plant at a denser rate. » Today, nearly 95% of all corn and soybeans grown in the United States are genetically modified to improve yield per acre, primarily through herbicide and insect tolerance traits.

Plant scientists have also enriched staple crops with essential nutrients. Golden rice, for example, uses corn genes to produce beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Purple tomatoes have been genetically modified with snapdragon DNA to contain high levels of anthocyanins, the antioxidants found in blueberries and blackberries. Some plant engineers favor designer species, like non-browning arctic apples and pinkglow sweet pineapples.

Despite this progress, a 2020 poll by the Pew Research Center found that only 27% of Americans trust genetically modified crops, even though a comprehensive 2016 report from the National Academies of Science found no evidence that the foods Genetically modified foods are less safe than conventional foods. But as climate change takes a toll on agricultural yields and the world’s population continues to grow, genetically modified crops with climate-friendly traits, such as the ability to thrive in drought or flood, can produce their own fertilizers and to optimize land use, will become increasingly important. will probably become less the exception than the norm.