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.

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

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

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

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

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.

As people around the world become more affluent, they are demanding diets richer in animal protein, which will require ever more robust feed crop yields to sustain.