Genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs are here to stay. Thats not to say that food produce

Genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs are here to stay. That"s not to say that food produced by conventional agriculture will disappear, 【C1】______ simply that foodbuying patterns will polarize. It may even be that GM food will become the food of 【C2】______ because consumers come to appreciate the health benefits of reduced pesticide use.

The reason GM food will not go away is that we need a three-fold increase in food production by the year 2050 to keep 【C3】______ with the world"s 【C4】______ population growth to ten or eleven billion. It"s not just a question of more mouths to feed either. 【C5】______ is often forgotten is that all these extra people will take up space,reducing the overall land 【C6】______ for agriculture.

It may well be that in the long term it is the developing world 【C7】______ benefits most from GM foods. It"s true that for the next ten years or so GM crops may be 【C8】______ expensive. But the lesson of personal computers is applicable here—once the technology has been developed for money spinning crops, 【C9】______ maize, soy beans and cotton,it will become 【C10】______ for all.

This doesn"t mean, unfortunately, that families will 【C11】______ , but severity and duration will be helped by an 【C12】______ ability to produce and distribute food.

【C13】______ we move into this new era of agriculture we"re embarking on a journey the world has seen many number of times with experiments before. We have been refining species of wheat for several thousand years. Genetic engineers like me are not doing anything as 【C14】______ as making a cabbage into a cauliflower 【C15】______ has been done by plant breeders in the past.

We"re simply tapping into the whole gene pool, rather than concentrating on one species at a time.

【C1】______

A．and

B．or

C．but

D．rather than