The Battle of Ideas will host the third UK versus India Debating Matters Championship, a showdown between the winners of Debating Matters Competition UK 2011 and the winners of the Debating Matters India Competition 2011.

Students from DAV Model School, Chandigarh, India, and St Francis Xavier’s College, Liverpool UK will debate the motion It is time to embrace the commercial planting of GM Food crops to decide the winner of the UK versus India Debating Matters Championship 2011.

In recent years the issue of whether to pursue the commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) crops has resurfaced. In the context of concerns over a future ‘global food crisis’, GM advocates and government ministers the world over have said that GM has the capacity to facilitate a second ‘green revolution’, and help feed the world’s poor. Some have gone so far as to criticise ‘European GM Myths’ for hindering Africa’s escape from poverty and creating a situation where most African countries shun GM crops and food. But anti-GM campaigners argue claims that GM can alleviate poverty are disingenuous and misrepresent the real political problems behind food shortages across the world. They further suggest that there are sufficient unknown risks to justify a freeze on commercialisation, and that scientists and overplaying what the technology can achieve. Whilst some countries such as the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Canada already grow GM crops extensively, many others including India have been more hesitant especially when it comes to food crops. The debate involves an interconnected set of issues, ranging from the environmental impact, economic costs and benefits of GM to wider concerns about food production, human health and the environment. Are GM crops the answer to the problem, or do they, as some have argued, threaten an environmental catastrophe? What’s the evidence on the success or failure of GM to date?

Bill Durodié: associate fellow, international security programme, Chatham House, Singapore

Dame Sandra Dawson: KPMG Professor of Management, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Hari Sundaresan: chief procurement officer, BT