Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The world is facing an “enormous” challenge to feed a growing population as temperatures warm globally and genetically-modified foods may be part of the solution, the U.K. government’s top scientist said.

With worsening food shortages, governments need to increase agricultural research spending and reconsider options including genetically-modified, or GM, foods, which have been historically rejected by consumers in Europe, John Beddington told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

“We have at the global level a genuine issue of world food shortage,” Beddington told lawmakers. “GM is not the only answer but it may well be a part of an answer to a number of very difficult problems.”

A 60 percent rise in food prices from early 2007 until mid- 2008 caused riots in countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in June that as much as $20 billion a year is needed in agricultural investments to tackle the issue of supplying enough food to feed the world.

The dilemma for governments is to grow 50 percent more food in two decades and double production in four decades “on less land because of urbanization, climate change and so on; with less water, and probably using less fertilizers and less pesticides” than before, Beddington said late yesterday.

“Can you feed 9 billion people by 2050 in some form of equitable and sustainable way?” Beddington said. “It’s an enormous challenge.”

Genetically-Modified Crops

The problem for the U.K. is less pressing because the country is “relatively prosperous” and can buy sufficient food for its needs on the world market, the scientist said.

European consumers, though, need to be encouraged to overcome a reluctance to eat genetically-modified foods, he said. That aversion may be because when the technology was first used, its purpose was mainly to cut costs rather than solve “difficult problems” such as more frequent drought, saltier soils and declining rainfall, he said.

“I don’t think GM is either good or bad,” Beddington said. “If it can solve the problem, we need to be thinking about it.”

GM crops haven’t been proven to be the best solution for any agricultural problem including drought, Jan van Aken, agriculture campaigner for the conservation group Greenpeace International, said today in a telephone interview from Amsterdam. Improving soil fertility and diversifying crops are keys to boost yields as warming threatens to make weather patterns more erratic, he said.

‘Insurance Policy’

“A healthy soil is the best insurance policy against longer drought periods,” van Aken said, adding that using organic fertilizers boosts water retention in soils. “You need diversity in the field if you want to increase your yields because only diversity withstands erratic weather.”

Beddington said the use of GM cotton in clothing is now “ubiquitous” and that genetically-modified foods are eaten in the U.S. and other nations outside Europe.

“I understand this is a behavioral response that something you put on your shoulders is a lot less of a concern than something you put in your mouth,” Beddington said. Still, “GM is being eaten widely throughout the world and we’ve not had indications of major problems.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 29, 2009 11:10 EST