GMO crops are crucial to keeping up with food demand, UNL report says

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A fast-growing world population, weather patterns and higher demand are making food scarce.

By 2050, we will need to produce 60% more food to feed a world population of 9.3 billion, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

A new report by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Clayton Yeutter Institute says farmers can fill the gap with help from biotechnology. 

The report was based on a UNL summit in March that included panelists in agriculture, business, government, law and academia. 

The summit panelists said that to keep up with food demand, farmers need help from Congress and federal regulators.

“Now and into the future, agriculture biotechnology continues to increase, but trade policies are not necessarily caught up with that,” said Jill O’Donnell, the Yeutter Institute’s director. 

The report says a challenge is that companies profit from selling food labeled “non-GMO” at higher prices. 

Local farmers told Channel 8 that innovation like GMOs has been a game-changer and is key to keeping up with the high demand of food.  

“The way Tom and I farm is not the way my dad farmed, and that’s not the way his dad farmed,” said Paula Peterson, who farms near Waverly. “We’re fifth-generation Nebraska farmers, and we see changes all the time.” 

She said these changes have made farming more sustainable. 

“GMOs have been a great way for us to be able to use less water, less chemicals,” Peterson said.