Gene genies [Engineering GM]

Nothing has suffered a backlash quite like GM food. But the public's reticence to embrace crops that have been modified artificially has helped spur new approaches to creasing food production. The reticence among the public to embrace GM may help improve its performance, which has been patchy David Dawe, senior food systems economist with the FAO, says one of the problems with technology is that it can focus too readily on large farming operations and take a long time to put into action properly. "For the small farmer, if it takes years of learning, it's no use to him".