Food for the Wealthy, Not for the Poor

2014-03-20 It's time to retire the myth that Bt cotton is to blame for farmer suicides in India. Opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) claim that the proliferation of GM crops like Bt cotton has placed enormous financial strain on India’s smallholder farmers, driving them to suicide. But detailed studies on the ground indicate that, far from failure, Bt cotton has been a boon for Indian farmers, raising yields per acre by nearly one-quarter and raising smallholder profits by one-half, and lowering health-care costs by helping avoid millions of cases of pesticide poisoning. 

Lomborg discusses the research presented in the book "Best Things First" on television, radio and podcasts around the globe. Watch his interview Julia Hartley-Brewer.

This week, government representatives and policy experts from south and south-west Asia will gather in Kathmandu to discuss the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is a set of targets that determines how much of national governments’ and the international development community’s budgets will be spent between now and 2030. Since the targets were passed in 2015, policy-makers are finding it difficult to deliver the extensive list of 169 different well-meaning ambitions at once.