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To the quite interesting post in Applied Mythology (To view blog posting click here), I can add that the cost of the impacts of the Anti-GMO movement identified by S.D. Savage in his blog, are much more profound in those countries that need the most this and any other technology that may contribute to alleviating hunger and poverty…developing countries.

In such countries, like my home country Honduras, there is a desperate need of addressing production and productivity issues. Most importantly, the urgency exists to address the needs of small and resource poor farmers with crops and traits which are not likely to be addressed by the private sector including multinational companies. Those likely to address developing countries crops and traits are the international and national research, and academic institutions; precisely those who are more sensitive and vulnerable to increases in the complexity and the cost of compliance with biosafety regulations. Whether these organizations have the capacity to deliver an innovation to farmers are another story and thus one more blog entry in the near future….

We desperately need to rationalize biosafety regulations so that they are indeed protective, reasonable, feasible, transparent, cost and time effective, fair and thus functional. This is the only way to ensure that a potentially valuable tool will not be blocked from use in the future.