IRAQ: Genetically engineered food

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Iraq could soon have genetically engineered crops and livestock.

Michael Yost of the U.S. Department of Agriculture visited Iraq this week to meet with officials from Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry. One thing Yost, head of the department’s foreign agriculture service, recommended was the use of genetically engineered crops and livestock. Yost argued that such techniques would boost productivity.

‘We need to get new genetics, both plant and animal, over here. Get them on those farms. Demonstrate to the farmers over here in this country what new genetics can do for them, both animal and plant,’ Yost said. ‘I mean, even the smallest farmer can afford better genetics.’ Such talk might provoke hostility in some corners of the world, where genetically modified foods are viewed with suspicion, but Yost was a believer.

— Ned Parker in Baghdad