If there are more and more environmental refugees, they are going to end up on your doorstep too.

We have domesticated crops over a very long period of time, like tens of thousands of years. And crops get - seeds get carried. Sometimes, if they're very small seeds, they get scattered off trucks. Pollen travels.

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

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

Myths about the dire effects of genetically modified foods on health and the environment abound, but they have not held up to scientific scrutiny. And, although many concerns have been expressed about the potential for unexpected consequences, the unexpected effects that have been observed so far have been benign.

I don't know how you overcome the dearth of scientists in the government positions.

There's almost no food that isn't genetically modified. Genetic modification is the basis of all evolution. Things change because our planet is subjected to a lot of radiation, which causes DNA damage, which gets repaired, but results in mutations, which create a ready mixture of plants that people can choose from to improve agriculture.