Civilization depends on our expanding ability to produce food efficiently, which has markedly accelerated thanks to science and technology.

Jumping genes are fundamental because they're agents of change. Everybody knows that organisms evolve. What makes them evolve is that their genes are dynamic and in motion. A familiar example is the stripe-y corn - called Indian corn - that you buy in the fall.

Even as the population doubled from three to six billion, we managed to race ahead with all kinds of technological and scientific events in agriculture - from using more fertilizers to mechanization to advanced plant breeding.

We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can't support many more people.

If everybody switched to organic farming, we couldn't support the earth's current population - maybe half.

There are probably already too many people on the planet.

New molecular methods that add or modify genes can protect plants from diseases and pests and improve crops in ways that are both more environmentally benign and beyond the capability of older methods.