Mars wants to create GMO cocoa resistant to climate change
Food — di Lorenzo Brenna
Among the crops threatened by global warming is cocoa — Mars would like to prevent its extinction by altering its DNA. But GMOs are not the solution.
Mars wants to create GMO cocoa resistant to climate change
Among the crops threatened by global warming is cocoa — Mars would like to prevent its extinction by altering its DNA. But GMOs are not the solution.
The climate changes under way are altering the planet's biological balance and threatening the survival of numerous living organisms, both animal and plant. Among the latter are cocoa plants, which require precise environmental and climatic conditions, characterised by humidity and high rainfall. Some researchers believe that by 2050 many places where cocoa is currently grown will no longer be suitable. Chocolate production is therefore set to decline, and one of the world's most beloved foods could become a luxury. To ward off the decline of cocoa, Mars, an American multinational specialising in confectionery, has decided to genetically modify cocoa plants to make them more resilient.
More resilient plants in a world less suited to plants
Mars is funding research conducted by a team of researchers at the Californian university UC Berkeley to produce GMO cocoa plants. The aim is to make the plants better equipped to cope with rising global temperatures and fungal diseases. The scientists are using a technique called Crispr/Cas9, which allows one or more genes to be corrected in any cell. In practice, it is possible to make small changes to DNA, modifying all the desired genes.
In search of the right climate
Cocoa plants, as mentioned, require temperature, humidity and soil to present the right conditions. With rising temperatures, and setting aside DNA manipulation techniques, the only option is to move cocoa plantations to ever higher altitudes. This would, however, be a barely sustainable choice: the future cocoa-growing areas of Ghana, for example, one of the world's leading producers, are currently protected and cultivation is prohibited there.
Why GMOs are not a solution
Creating GMO cocoa plants would apparently seem like the most reasonable solution to avoid losing a food that people love and that guarantees large revenues for the food industry. And yet there is something intrinsically wrong with wanting to counter climate change with genetically modified organisms. GMOs have, in fact, up to now proved extremely harmful to native biodiversity and require massive doses of pesticides.
The false resilience of GMOs
Satisfying the desire for chocolate through GMO cocoa crops could have a very high environmental impact, with externalised costs that would fall on all of us. Circumventing the effects of global warming with GMOs could also represent a kind of shortcut, whereas what we truly need is to intervene massively at the root by reducing global emissions through targeted political and personal choices — even at the cost of eating less chocolate.