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.

We have six-and-a-half-billion people on the planet, going rapidly towards seven. We're going to need a lot of inventiveness about how we use water and grow crops.

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

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.

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

For me science is not different from art, except in the one small, crucial detail that experiments speak their own truths, not ours.

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