The recent debate on the Big Island over genetically modified agriculture pitted organic coffee farmers against researchers and the biotech industry, with some organic farmers voicing concern that genetically engineered crops threaten their livelihood and agricultural philosophy.

The organic farming movement has shown that it is possible to dramatically reduce the use of insecticides, and doing so benefits both farm workers and the environment. But organic farming also has serious limits — there are many pests and diseases that cannot be controlled using organic approaches, and organic crops are generally more expensive to produce and buy.

To meet the appetites of the world's population without drastically hurting the environment requires a visionary new approach: combining genetic engineering and organic farming.

By 2050, the number of people on Earth is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion. To feed those people with current crop yields and farming practices, we will need to clear, fertilize and spray vast amounts of wild land. Millions of birds and billions of beneficial insects will die from lost habitat and industrial pesticides, farm workers will be at increased risk for disease, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation.

Clearly, there must be a better way to boost food production while minimizing its impact.

One way to boost yields is to develop new varieties of crops that can survive harsh conditions such as drought, cold, heat, salt and flooding. Many of the world's poorest people farm in areas that are far from ideal, and freshwater sources are decreasing in quantity and quality throughout the world. Organic farming can help somewhat: Organically cultivated soil tends to hold water longer because of the higher levels of organic matter. Still, this approach has limits.

Far more helpful would be new crop varieties designed to survive difficult environments, and in the future this is where genetic engineering will likely have the most significant human and ecological impact. Crops with enhanced tolerance to drought, for instance, would allow farmers to produce more food using less water. Already there are varieties of genetically engineered wheat that can tolerate drought, as well as rice that can tolerate flooding and tomato plants that can tolerate salt.

Another important challenge is to fight pests and disease, which take an estimated 20 to 40 percent bite out of agricultural productivity worldwide. Reducing this loss would be equivalent to creating more land and more water. But current pesticide use is a health and environmental hazard, and organic and genetic engineering offer complementary solutions. Genetic engineering can be used to develop seeds with enhanced resistance to pests and pathogens; organic farming can manage the overall spectrum of pests more effectively.

Genetically engineered crops have already enjoyed major success against pests. In Hawai'i, the 1998 introduction of an engineered papaya plant that could resist the papaya ringspot virus virtually saved the industry. There was no organic approach available then to protect the papaya from this devastating disease, nor is there now.

Genetic engineering also helps achieve other goals of the organic farming movement. By reducing the use of pesticides and by reducing pest and disease, it can make farming more affordable and thus keep family farmers in business. It can also assure local food security, an issue of growing concern here in Hawai'i. It can also make food more nutritious.

Worldwide demand by farmers for improved hybrid corn has made Hawai'i's expanding seed industry the No. 1 agricultural commodity in the state. According to an economic analysis commissioned by the Hawai'i Farm Bureau Federation, the Hawai'i seed industry contributes approximately $144 million of economic activity to Hawai'i's economy. This translates to $7 million in annual taxes to the state, $53 million in annual labor income and more than 2,000 jobs.

To successfully blend the two important strands of modern agriculture — genetic engineering and organic farming — we will need to overcome long animosity between the advocates of organic farming and conventional farmers. We also need to address the repulsion some feel toward the idea of genetic engineering.

On an environmental level, some worry that genetically engineered crops will cross-pollinate nearby species to create a new kind of weed that could invade pristine ecosystems and destroy native plant populations. On a personal level, some people worry that genetically engineered foods are unsafe or unhealthy to eat.

Based on our experience, however, it appears those concerns are driven more by technological anxiety than by science. Virtually all scientific panels that have studied this matter have concluded that pollen drift from genetically engineered varieties currently grown in the United States does not pose a risk of invasiveness. And in terms of food safety, a report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the process of adding genes to our food by genetic engineering is no riskier than mixing genes by conventional plant breeding.

Today, 70 percent of all processed foods in the United States have at least one ingredient from genetically engineered corn, cotton, canola, or soybean. Unlike the well-documented adverse effects of some pesticides, there has not been a single case of illness associated with these crops.

Pitting genetic engineering and organic farming against each other only prevents the transformative changes needed on our farms. It seems nearly inevitable that genetic engineering will play an increasingly important role in agriculture. The question is not whether we should use genetic engineering, but more pressingly, how we should use it — to what responsible purpose.

Agriculture needs our collective help and all appropriate tools if we are to feed the growing population in an ecological manner. Consumers have significant opportunity to influence what kinds of plants are developed and to address the key agricultural challenges. Let us direct attention to where it matters — the need to support the use of seed and farming methods that are good for the environment and for consumers.

What we can hope for is a future in which farmers use the best organic farming methods to grow the most beneficial engineered crops. Any effective approach in feeding the world in a sustainable manner will require us to embrace more than one great new idea.

Pamela Ronald is a professor of plant pathology at the University of California, Davis, and co-author with her husband, an organic farmer, of "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food."