Jonathan Rauch

Genetically engineered crops can protect the earth from the damage caused by farming techniques such as ploughing and irrigation, argues Jonathan Rauch in the following viewpoint. Some genetically engineered crops are resistant to weed killers, he contends, allowing farmers to kill weeds without ploughing, and others are salt tolerant, which means they can be planted in land that has high salinity as a result of irrigation. Returning abused farmland to productivity using genetically engineered crops makes unnecessary the conversion of wild habitat into cropland, he maintains. Rauch is a writer in residence at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Rauch, what are some of the trade-offs of organic, traditional, and low-input farming techniques?
2. What do many “greens” call organisms resulting from...