There’s a compelling argument that genetically modified crops is the only way to adequately feed a world population of which a large percentage is starving. For people in some countries, the creation of a drought or locust resistant crop might be the only thing standing between farmers and financial ruin or starvation. Luckily, in America, this isn’t a problem most people have to face. Consequently, the sales and production of organic foods is on the rise as many consumers avoid what they feel to be unnatural, which is a totally valid and important choice for a responsible consumer in a first-world country to make… especially given the controversy surrounding G.E. foods.

Which makes it all the more important that the doofuses over at the US Department of Agriculture not completely bone up the quarantine of untested G.E. crops in the American ecosystem:

The Department of Agriculture has failed to regulate field trials of genetically engineered crops adequately, raising the risk of unintended environmental consequences, according to a stinging report issued by the department’s own auditor.

The report, issued late last month by the department’s Office of Inspector General, found that biotechnology regulators did not always notice violations of their own rules, did not inspect planting sites when they should have and did not assure that the genetically engineered crops were destroyed when the field trial was done.

In many cases, the report said, regulators did not even know the locations of field trials for which they granted permits.

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