Topic: 2024-GMOs and Food Security
Country: Iran
Delegate Name: Adam Bonde
As the world has been progressing recently, FAO delegates are in a precarious situation. To change this, FAO strives to “achieve food security for all and [to] make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives.” The government of Iran has worked closely with the FAO since 1953, trying to tackle challenges related to water and food scarcity, agriculture, food security, and climate change. This challenge is becoming more daunting every second, the main proprietor being GMOs. In recent years, 94% of soybeans, 96% of cotton, 92% of corn, 95% of canola crops, and 99.9% of all sugars are genetically altered to be produced rapidly, but the genetic modification of these plants has caused numerous, direct or indirect health issues to over 60 million people worldwide. This concern for GMOs has been relevant for Iran as well as over ¾ of other countries, particularly the respective demographics of each country, which have reportedly been faced with over a 50% majority being concerned towards the health effects of GMOs. Iran, as a country, struggles to decide what is best for the population to keep food security. To truly describe the issues and fixes that could or will occur, understanding the meaning of food security and GMO is imperative. Food security means healthy and reliable foods for people, and GMOs are pesticides that genetically modify the DNA in plants to make them grow faster and more efficiently. These 2 terms are essentially polar opposites, in which a change to one will affect the other. Demonstrating this, Iran believes GMOs cannot simply be removed from agricultural institutions, as they are ingrained into the agricultural and economic systems. The removal of GMOs within Iran would cause a complete agricultural collapse. Considering that Iran’s irrigation systems are recovering from their water reserve dropping from 130 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2013 to 105 bcm in 2017 of renewable water sourcing. Iran will not be able to recover its economic and agriculture pitfall with the removal of GMOs, though if supported by the FAO as well as other delegations, the delegation of Iran is amenable to slightly reducing the usage of GMOs to further support the health of their population.
Since the production of plants would take vastly longer, though, this idea would cause a decrease in food security. This is why Iran, along with many other countries, is struggling to figure out what will be best regarding the use of GMOs relating to food safety. The delegation of Iran reports that Iran has a passive stance on the use of GMOs, believing that they should be used in moderation to keep proper hygiene within food products, but simply eliminating GMOs is not an option; their effect on the food industry is imperative for Iran’s economic interests. Iran has already put in place numerous policies to ensure the proper usage of GMOs while still keeping in mind the desperation for biosafety regulations that the population is so skeptical yet enthusiastic towards. One of these policies is the investment into developing biotechnology so proper usage of this biotechnology can be reached, resulting in improved crop yields and resistance to disease, drought, and pests instead of dangerous chemicals. FAO has provided guidelines on how to safely utilize such biotechnology. As Iran, we propose that FAO create further guidelines and amendments towards the usage of biochemicals so they can be useful for countries but not a risk to their population’s health.
After careful consideration, Iran is fully and completely committed to assisting the FAO in their efforts to provide secure and safe food for all countries, as well as efforts to minimize famine within conflict zones. The FAO sentiment emphasizing solutions to provide healthy usage of biotechnology within plants to provide larger quantities of food, addressing the shortages that many countries face, is echoed by Iran. This proper use of GMOs will be imperative to solve the issues of famine in any place, particularly within conflict zones, as GMOs can help increase longevity for food given to survivors as well as quantity given to survivors, while still keeping secure and healthy food for all. If all of these ideals are implemented as recommended by Iran as well as the FAO, this committee will create more resilient agricultural systems for all countries.
