To: Giles Alston

From: Ben Jennings

A world in 2030: Sustaining

Sustenance

All the food we eat - every grain of rice and kernel of corn - has been
genetically modified. None of it was here before mankind learned to
cultivate crops. The question isn't whether our food has been modified,
but how. ~ Michael Specter

Beans rank amongst the greatest natural assets to ever to be

harnessed by human kind. They offer a greater nutritional return on
investment (in terms of the amount of energy needed to grow them)
than nearly any other agricultural crop. Beans and other staple crops
however, have been over-exploited and made useful through a
fundamentally flawed system of human design. A system that at its
inception offered more bountiful riches than man had ever been privy
to and was far too enticing to pass up; but has since continued to lead
us down a path that is impossibly difficult to navigate.
Agriculture is the foundation of modern society. It allowed for
advanced communal organization, provided a framework for
establishing a hierarchy of labor (and power), and facilitated a shift
away from nomadism. Most importantly however, agriculture provided
mankind with a method to cheat the process of natural selection, and a
chance to largely absolve its populations from problems associated
with scarcity; allowing such populations to reach sizes that are only
sustainable within the bubble of human innovation and artificial
enterprise.
The problem with bubbles is that they burst. Since the dawn of
agriculture there has been constant pressure to continue innovating in
an effort to sustain blooming populations. Agricultural processes have
been streamlined and have been made both more efficient, and more
effective at delivering high yields. Crops themselves have been
subjected to artificial selection processes to ensure the delivery of
superior products for human consumption. Systems have their limits
though, and by 2030 human kind will be seriously stressing the Earths
capacity to sustain the projected 8.5 billion people that will inhabit it.
The next and newest levy in line to prevent the ruinous effects of
agricultural collapse and food shortages is the genetic modification of
agro-organics. 2030 calls for more than just beans. We need super
beans, and rest assured well have them. As Mr. Specter states above,
genetic modification is not a new practice; but in the modern era it is
unique in terms of the speed, specificity, and scale with which it can be
achieved. The stresses of population and environmental degradation
require that crops of the future be able provide greater nutritional
value, have the capability to grow in more volatile or less fertile
environments, and require relatively lower maintenance than their
modern day counterparts.
The importance of super-foods for not only the preservation of
world populations, but also international security and peace cannot be
understated. Sustaining and improving the food supply is easily one of
the best ways to ensure the preservation of world order. GMOs are not
without their own problems, but in order to sustain the short-term
interests of human kind, problems such as crop-population
homogeneity, potential long-term health risks for consumers and moral
questions of interfering with Darwinian competition on such a grand
scale, must be shelved.